


The Wrong Roommate

by namnamee



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Everyone loves Taeyong, F/M, Fluff, Hot Jaehyun, Jaehyun hates pizza, Jaehyun is mr popular, Jaehyun is super nice, Johnny is protective of taetae, Only to Taeyong, Shy Taeyong, Taeyong hates cats, Ten loves attention, Weird shit happens all the time, i'm done, johnny loves ten, maybe slightly angsty, pizza is overrated, they call him prince JJ
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2018-12-04 14:22:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 49,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11557023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/namnamee/pseuds/namnamee
Summary: Taeyong is tricked into sharing rooms with a total stranger by Ten, and he goes with the flow because, Jung Jaehyun is gorgeous and he is his roommate.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this originally in Aff, but then I got my inivitation to ao3, so I thought why not just start with my current favorite? ^^ I'll post the rest of the chapters soon.

"Oh!!! my baby Tae is finally in college. I have tears in my eyes." Ten dramatically wiped his fake tears while watching Taeyong unpack his stuff. 

"Oh shut up you drama queen." He threw a pair of pajamas on his face and decided to ignore the dramatic look of shock on Ten's face.

Taeyong had just arrived into the campus an hour ago, and was already half way done with unpacking when Ten, his childhood best friend waltzed into the room like a diva and made himself at home on his freshly made up bed. His initial announcement had been 'I'm here to help!!' but then morphed it into 'I see you are doing a good job yourself' seconds later. Nonetheless he was glad for the constant chatter that distracted him from his anxiety. Ten had arrived an hour ago with Johnny, his boyfriend, and he was already settled into his room. Though Taeyong had a suspicion, due to the lack of a Johnny, that the poor was doing the 'settling' in on his own.

"Your roommate isn't here yet I see." Ten observed, tilting his head towards the other room. 

"I am so proud of your observational skills. But yeah, fortunately, he isn't here."

"Could be a she...!" Ten puffed indignantly, as if that made anything better. It was co-ed hostel, but then that was made up for by the fact that there were two separate rooms with attached bathroom, a common space and a kitchen in the dorm allotted by the college. "And maybe she'll help you finally lose your virginity!" Ten didn't even have time to duck as the sock hit him on the face. It didn't stop him though, the Thai rolled around his bed, messing it up further, laughing at his expense. While Taeyong tried to hide behind his hands, and not let this get to him.

"Yaya, I am pretty sure that Jung Jaehyun is a guy's name. Plus I'm gay."

"Hey you never know. Parents nowadays are all about that variety...omg TY you should seen your face..it's so red!" Ten continued laughing and rolling around and Taeyong was pretty close to kicking the Thai out.

"You know, this room was supposed to be someone else's. If that someone hadn't attacked my weakness and manipulated me, I might've been rooming with your boyfriend right now."

Ten fell silent at that, though he was still panting from his laughing session, sensing that Taeyong was actually upset about this.

"Aw, come on Taeyong. Rooming with Johnny would've been no fun. Just look at it this way, you get to make a new friend. Where else would be a better place to make new friends than college?" When Taeyong didn't answer he continued. "Besides, Johnny and I are in completely different majors, we wouldn't even be able to see each other much once it starts. Rooming is the only way we can even at least get a glimpse."

This right there was Taeyong's weakness. He always ended up buying Ten's explanations, because to him they seemed so sensible. Even though Ten's reasons for the manipulation he had executed a few hours ago seems legit, it didn't help calm Taeyong. Because Taeyoung wasn't good at making friends. At all.

"Sure, sure. You could've just said all this instead of calling me up, wailing and being all miserable because Johnny's in a different room, and his roomie was me. You didn't have to make me shift, you would've been there all the time anyways."

"That's true. But would you want to hear all x-rated sounds coming out of the room at odd hours of the day? No right? I figured. Now we get the whole place to ourselves too. We already christened the bathroom. hehe." Ten knew he had won the argument, and to be honest, Taeyong was still pissed. Mainly because he hated the fact that Ten, as always, was right. He would absolutely hate being in the same flat as the two made love.

 Ten continues talking, but Taeyong tunes him out as his thoughts carry him two years back, his mind twirling with questions of what if's and regrets. The trip is cut short when the both hear the front door open and close. Ten jumps up to take a peek while Taeyong froze mid action, both of them realising that the lack of a loud greeting meant it wasn't Johnny. 

"Well...all I can say is, you'll be thanking me for putting you here someday." Ten winked at Taeyong before walking out to meet his Roommate. And as the honey dipped voice reached his ears, mumbling a gentle 'hello', Taeyong should've known Ten was going to be right again.


	2. First Impressions Are Always the Best Impressions...Right??

 

 

 

Ten's voice was like the voice of reason in the sea of self-doubt and nervousness Taeyong was drowning under. He was still rooted to his spot in front on the dresser, his han still held onto the white shirt he had been about to place along with his other whites. He faced paled further as he heard a voice that was not Ten's and he went into a deeper sense of panic. 

Mostly because he liked the voice, and he really wanted the owner to like him too.

He hadn't hated Ten more in his life than right now, except for that one time that doesn't matter now. Taeyong knew, from his psychology classes in school that the socially correct process would be to walk up to this Jung Jaehyun, Walk upto him confidently, smile, greet him, introduce yourself, vow to be a good roommate and then pretend he doesn't exist, preferably, for the next however long they had to room together. First impressions matter the most anyways.

Only, he wasn't able to move an inch from his spot and he was breaking out in cold sweat because each second he stood in his room, was a new black mark against his name and somehow the thought of losing scores brought him out of his self-pity and he stumbled outside his room clumsily, ie; loudly enough to get their attention.

Perfect. There goes his first impression.

Figuring he was fighting a losing battle anyway, he walked on only to trip on oxygen. Time slowed as his body flung itself on the floor with a thud and in that second he realised his roommate probably hates him now. He could imagine the look of utter disgust on the faceless flatmate's face while Ten probably was trying to imagine a sexy Johnny to stop himself from laughing. Taeyongs eyes were shut tight and his face was turned to the floor, so he wouldn't know that Jung Jaehyun was actually concerned, and would've come to his aid if Ten hadn't started choking.

The sound of struggling caught Taeyong's attention as well, and he took in a deep breath as he looked up. The first thing he saw was a blond haired boys back turned to him, patting gently on Ten back, as the Thai seemed to be struggling to get air. Taeyong's face burned realising that Ten was just trying to keep in his laughter.

He stood up, dusted himself off the million germs that would've gotten on him by now and walked up to them, it was only a few steps, but each step was a huge leap in Taeyong's dictionary.

"Hi." He had intended it to come out louder but it ended up being a whisper. But that effectively caught the Blondie's attention. His roommate turned around. His eyes auto-focused on this Jaehyun.

First mistake.

Because his roommate was gorgeous. Like...really good looking. Like the type you see in movies and k-dramas, all tall, cute with dimples, kind eyes, and perfect body. And for the first time since the Taeyong entered college, he felt scared. There was a moment where the world went silent for shorter male, he could tell that Jaehyun was saying something to him, but he wasn't really listening.

"Taeyong breathe!" Ten chimed in, realising his friends plight, after all, Taeyong was never good at making friends. And Taeyong for once listened to Ten.

Second mistake.

The moment he had realised that he had stopped breathing, his brain registered the lack of oxygen, and made him take in a deep breath. He was aware that Ten was explaining to Jaehyun about how shy he was. He would've been irritated under normal circumstances, but something hit his nostrils as he inhaled, and he immediately crunched up his face in disgust.

"Whats that smell?"

The two turned to him again. Both looking confused, between the two only Ten knew about his sensitivity to smell, so the boy began sniffing around real hard, while Jaehyun looked at him with a smirk.

"Is it a strong musky smell that makes you wanna jump on me?" Ten started choking again, only this time it was because of shock. Taeyong on the other hand was pretty composed as he replied.

"No it's a animal kind of smell that reminds me of poop and makes me want to throw up."

"Oh? Your shit must smell amazing then! If it is similar to any smell in the room." Jaehyun smirked again. His body was completely facing him and the smell hit him stronger than before. Something clicked and Taeyong realized that it was probably Jaehyun's deo that was causing him so much distress. Ten was leaning in a bit closer  to Jaehyun, sniffing at him and frowning, he did not mind the scent, its was kind of masculine and pleasant, maybe he'll buy the brand for Johnny next time.

"I wouldn't know, I don't smell my shit on a regular basis. You on the other hand seem to bath in it." 

"Ah, so it is my deo that's the problem?"

"Yes please." Taeyong took a step back, not being able to take the strong smell any more. Jaehyun moved with him, leaving Ten standing there awakwardly observing this unique bonding session. "Don't come closer!" Taeyong weakly pushed aganist the others chest, the suffocation making him weaker than usual. But ofcourse, Jaehyun stepped closer, and one more step, and one more, and one more. So close that Taeyong could smell another musky scent along with the disgusting one. The two scents infiltrated his nose, and a second later he found himself throwing up on his brand new flatmate.


	3. Run and Hide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taeyong is super embarassed...lol

Taeyong isn't even a least bit ashamed in admitting that he ran away the moment he heard the bathroom door open. After emptying his half digested breakfast onto his roommates clean sneakers, which looked expensive enough to Taeyong for him to freak out, he had pushed a still shocked Jaehyun into his shower, while he cleaned up his vomit and left the place smelling like fresh Jasmine. All in a few minutes and he was out.

For the rest of the horrible, horrible day, he had been hearing a repeat telecast of his nightmare-like experience with his fresh flatmate, who he suspected wold soon be ex-flatmate. His only comfort came by the name Seo Johnny. who immediately pulled him into a protective side hug everytime Ten burst out laughing. Even his own parents and sister had betrayed him by taking screenshots of Ten's texts to them and spreading it further. It went so far that his distant cousin, Yuta, from Japan had texted him, asking about his flatmates well being, the point to be noted was that was the first time they had spoken in four years.

"Well at least this is helping you get back in touch with the Tae side of your family. The Yong side is obviously extinct!!" Ten laughed again. Johnny gave him an unimpressed glare as he passed the pizza to Taeyong, but it had zero effect on the Thai. Everyone and their future children knew the Seo Johnny was a bucket goo for this guy. Only time they even disagree, even slightly is when Johhny gets protective of Taeyong, whom he claims is his first best friend ever.

"Give him a break Ten, he's already had a rough day." Johnny tried, but Ten only smirked.

"Well well, look at that. If you are going to protect Taeyong everytime, why didn't you just date him instead?" 

"I should've. You obviously lack humane skills." Little known to them, Taeyong heart actually skipped a beat at Johnny's statement. But his face held only a pensive expression. He shook his head the couple, ignoring the pang of jealousy in his gut when he saw Ten tip toe towards the taller and press a kiss onto his lips. Immediately dispersing Johnny's displeased expression.

Boy was Johnny whipped for his best friend.

He had crashed at their place long enough but really it was getting darker, and late and he sure didn't want to stay back and hear all the lewd sound that the horny rabbits make while copulating. He doesn't think he can handle that. So he picks up his ass from their couch and walks down two floors to reach his flat. He may not be rooming with his friends, but at least he gets to have his friends close buy right?

He is shit nervous when he opens the door to his flat, his mind, body, heart and soul would rather be with his annoying half Japanese cousin than in the same space as the man he vomitted on. He started mumbling the long speech he had prepared to apologise with each step. His mind barely registering that there was someone a few steps behind him, watching him since he arrived at his door. The man silently entered the flat right behind the poor black haired boy and locked the door as silently as possible.

Taeyong did notice though that the flat was empty. There was not a single sound which indicated that Jaehyun was in, plus the lights were all off. He didn't even bother to switch them on though, his mind automatically reverting back to editting his apology. Yet again oblivious to the presence behind him. 

"Should I even apologise? I mean there is no point he probably hates me already." He mumbled under his breath, deciding to just call it a day and shut himself up in his room for the rest of his whole college life, or until Jaehyun kicks him out. He happened to breathe out loud as an overt sign of his exhaustion , but the subsequent inhalation it brought to his sense this strange, strange smell.

Musky but really really nice. 

He took it in again, taking a deeper breath, just to get that smell again. So he did. And again, and again. 

Taeyong actually smiled. Due to his OCD characteristics, he is often very sensitive about order and smells, though it wasn't too serious. But there weren't many smells he liked, and particularly disliked most perfumes, which forced people around him to stop using the product all together. But this smell was one of those rare ones that he actually liked, and the realisation made him smile. 

"Are you seriouly smelling the apartment right now?" a voice asked him, accompanied with a click that turned all the lights on.

Taeyong literally jumped off the ground, launching himself onto the one and only couch in the room with a shriek that would've put Ten to shame. The man who spoke, on the other hand, was very much amused.

"J-Jaehyun! Was that you??" the poor breathless and terrified boy asked. 

"Yeah I was right behind you since the..." Jaehyun's words trailed off into a chuckle, seeing that the person he was talking to had  run away into the safety of his room even before he could finish, though not before hitting his foot against a table and running the wall next to his door. "Heh... so cute."

 Taeyong had officially decided to quit breathing after that, because damn Jung Jaehyun sounded hot. 

 

 

 

*`*

 

 

 

Taeyong was cursing the stars which made him so self aware and shy and whatever he was. There hadn't been many times he hated himself, but today wasn't one of them. Mostly because his day had started by falling off the bed, and he hadn't even gotten a good enough sleep to begin with. Thanks to a certain roomate of his who had decided that watching the Hangover series at midnight was the bestest idea ever.

It wasn't that Taeyong hated it, because he himself liked the series, actually it was one of his all time favorites. So a small part of him wanted to watch it too, and that part had him straining his ears to pick up the dialogues that he had already pretty much learned by-heart. That, coupled with Jaehyun's loud and boisterous laughter - which made him feel weirdly made him want to laugh along - kept him awake the whole night. Also, he may or may not have dreamt of sitting next to Jaehyun and watching him laugh, in a very HD dream which freaked his sub conscious brain to the point where it forcefully jerked away and that resulted in Taeyong falling with a thud on the floor.

But that is just Taeyong's theory.

The last few days, he had actually been trying to avoid the blonde, since he embarrassed himself, not once, but twice in front of him. But it seems like Jaehyun is not as smart as he looks, because the boy simply could not take a hint. He would literally wake up and he would follow him around, even when Taeyong made sure to get up 'before' the other woke up, he would unashamedly enter his room when they both didn't have class. No knocks, just a Hey, how was your day? and would immediately start talking about his even if Taeyong didn't utter a word.

Of course, Taeyong never stayed in the room for long. 

Ten literally was a laughing mess everytime he ran into Taeyong. It was obvious from the haggard look of the boy that his roommate had probably decided to impose his presence on him again, and knowing the latter well enough by now, Ten was sure Jaehyun had one of his cute pout right about now as he wandered his flat alone and wondering what he did wrong.

"You are so weird. Prince JJ is willingly giving you his time and all you do is run to our room, or hide in the bathroom till he is gone."

"Listen, your Prince JJ isn't anything but annoying. He follows me around asking hyung is this deo ok? do you feel like vomiting? should I change it? this is literally his 15th 'new' deo. He literally throws it away if I don't like it. Like who in their fucking right mind does that?" Taeyong whined, still shocked by the boys behaviour even though its been going on for a while. 

"That's actually very cute. He's not that nice to everyone, so you be thankful he cares enough about your sensitive nose Tae." Johnny added, talking with his mouth full, which earned him a slap on the head from his lovely boyfriend. Watching them both Taeyong couldn't help but smile. They were cute. But that doesn't mean he wasn't shocked that Johnny was actually defending Jaehyun and not him.

"You know him?"

"They are practically best friends already." Ten snorted, "One basketball game was all it took and Prince JJ had Johnny floored. Damn if I knew that before, I would've played with you instead of waste months trying to make you realise how fuckable I am."

"I knew that since the beginning though. I was boned up at first sight baby."

The two made disgusting kissy faces at each other, which under usual circumstances would've made him annoyed and he would pretty much tell them to go get a room. Only right at that moment a familiar smell invaded his system and he was distracted.

It was the similar to the one he senses back at his flat sometimes. And as the smell became stronger, he realised that it was infact the same one from his flat. Which was weird since he had never sensed it in the campus before. 

"Hey! mind if we join?" 

Taeyong's head whipped around to the direction of that voice, so fast that it actually worried even Ten, because he literally screeched Taeyong you could've broken that neck! but he was more preoccupied with the puzzle pieces that finally seemed to fit. 

"Jaehyun, what deo are you using right now?" he asked, as the boy and his friend, Dooyoung (he guesses from the purple hair Jaehyun had talked about in one of his forced visits) sat down at the table. 

"Ugh, none? Oh shit! I forgot to shower after playing, I'm so sorry I--" Yet again Jaehyun's words trailed off as he watched Taeyong sprint away, and he sighed, shaking his head bemusedly. "When will I ever get to talk to him without him running away?"

"When you stop being so obvious maybe." 

"Shut up!" the blonde replied with no bite and they all erupted into laughter though a certain blonde was still looking at the direction his roommate had run off in.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful for the rest of the gang, especially Jaehyun. But the story was different for our main lead here, because he had just discovered something and it was making him go crazy.

It was Jaehyun's! I fucking liked my roommates natural body odour!!MY ROOMMATES! NATURAL!! BODY !! ODOUR! WTF is wrong with me?

And of course he was distracted in all of his remaining classes, and the break time in between and basically the whole time. He might've also bumped into a few more people that what would be considered normal, and walked into the completely wrong lecture and made himself look more stupid by trying to push a wall open (in his mind he was in pushing the door to his lecture).

So it was in a total state of oblivion that Taeyong walked into this room, which he thought was the library. In his defense, he would've been right if he had been, facing in the opposite direction, in a completely different building, in a completely different part of the campus. But unfortunately, for him, the door led him into the men's locker room. 

That is how he found himself face with a broad milky and slight muscular back, which was just perfect in his eyes, and also witnessed how a single drop of water escaped from the persons hair and went sliding down that back, disappearing into his blue jeans. Judging from the citru-y sweet smell, he was probably fresh from the shower. He watched as the boy (read man) took out his shirt from his locker, his back muscles flexing and causing all kinds of weird feelings in Taeyong's gut. Taeyong realised he was getting turned on, and that made him gasp pretty audibly. Obviously that caught the other's attention. His mind short circuited when this person turned around, and his eyes lit up in recognition and smiled that dimpled smile at him, with a warm cheerful greeting at the tip of his tongue. Needless to say, Taeyong never heard it since he took off in a sprint. Because fuck it was Prince JJ and he was hot and there was no way he would survive another second there without bursting into flames.

Hours later, Ten ended up spiting the food his mouth at Johnny's face, and resuming to laugh at the video he was watching. Which happened to be posted on their college page, and coincidentally featured his bestest friend running out of a building as if his life depended on it, but the highlight was that he was followed closely by the campus prince Jung Jaehyun. Even though everyone was more concerned about the fact that he was topless when he ran out the building chasing after the boy. The highlight of the whole video though had been how his friend Taeyong had managed to trip on nothing (as usual) and fall, causing Jaehyun, who was catching up pretty fast, to trip on him and fall too. The JohnTen laughed for a whole hour, downloading the video and sending it to Taeyong's old friends and parents who then posted it everywhere else, because 'Look our son and his boyfriend are so cute'.  

And so the Tae side of the family pestered Taeyong and the saga has only just begun.


	4. Because the Universe Hates Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taeyong is absolutely sure the Universe as a whole is conspiring against him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter up up up~~

(3 days later)

 

 

Taeyong was well aware of how popular his flatmate was. 

If anything, the amount of 'stares' and 'threats' and 'anonymous hate letters' he got on an hourly basis after the video went viral was only a confirmation for him.

Jung Jaehyun, mostly known as Jay, was super popular among the female population of their college, for obvious reason. And after seeing Jaehyun half naked with his own eyes, any doubts he had were gone. He didn't know much about Jaehyun outside of what he himself had experienced, and that was apparently not totally correct. In Taeyong's eyes, Jaehyun was warm, sweet, cute and nice, but Johnny and Ten have made it a point to remind him that Jaehyun is in-fact pretty cold. 

Which was hard for him to believe, because Taeyong swears that the boy was the sweetest person ever.

After the video had been uploaded, and his best friend (whom he regrets ever meeting) was kind enough to barge into their apartment at night and make them aware of it, things have been strained. At least on Taeyong's part. Because anything with a brain would perceive it as if Jaehyun and Taeyong were doing something before he ran out, because...reasons. And he had been right for most parts.  Also there was the part where he slipped and  then caused Jaehyun to trip on him, and he just wanted to bury himself ten feet under because damn his very existence is annoying. So ofcourse, Taeyong being Taeyong, had shut himself off completely, not even walking out of his room until he was sure Jaehyun wasn't outside, he was on the constant look out. Johnny had actually found him hiding behind a pole staring at the entrance of his building because Jaehyun was standing there, apparently waiting for someone. 

That is the funny part. Jaehyun had been waiting for him. The boy, who he found out was a few months younger to him, had been nothing but patient. He had stopped barging into his room uninvited, but would slip notes under his door. Initially they had small simple messages, and then they started to be more descriptive. Taeyong secretly wondered if the boy would write down the day's events for Taeyong to read, and that made him smile. Also the boy used to leave treats and snacks for him outside his door. 

So in conclusion, Jung Jaehyun was nice, but Jay wasn't?

There was also the rumor that Jaeh--Jay, slept around a lot. Which again confused Taeyong because the younger was always at home when he didn't have classes, and even if he had gone out partying, he would be back home before 12. He had once walked in on Jaehyun being pushed against the wall with his lips covered by another's, or being kissed as the blonde explained, right outside their door. The younger had sworn that it had been forced on him. And anyways, considering his schedule, he would've had to sleep 'around' between classes and that honestly didn't feel enough time to Taeyong.

As if you'd know! he shook his head, trying to wake himself out of day dream and focus on the book in front of him.

Currently our guy was seated in the library. Because that was the only place people were too busy minding their own business to even care about him and whisperes of 'Hey, isn't that Jay's current fuck?' didn't follow him around. He was seated by the tinted glass window, which again he was thankful for, he usually liked sitting by the window, watching the world go on as he stood rooted on spot, but lately he had been avoiding it. It has happened more than once that someone passing by his window at class or in the cafe flipped him off, because you know, Jay was half naked when he ran behind him. 

"I should really focus on the book." he sighed to himself, his thoughts drifting back to today morning, when he was faced with a half naked Jaehyun again, by mistake, and in his flustered state he ended up agreeing to the younger's offer of having lunch together later. He just couldn't refuse, even if he wanted, the boy had been so excited (a small part of Taeyong hoped that it was because of him). Also Jaehyun's dimples were kind of his new weakness.

But then here he was, huddled up in the corner of the library, desperately trying to read, or even pretend to, this book. But he was failing so hard. It was half an hour past the time they were supposed to meet up and he was in no state of mind to get up and keep his word. 

So he continued sitting there, looking out the window, now completely ignoring the book infront of him. Thats when he saw it. That white cat, sitting on the windowsill outside but still looking inside, staring right through his soul with a sinister look. It tilted its head, still staring at Taeyong and his tail swishing leisurely. And Taeyong hated it immediately. Stupid cat judging him when all it was doing was sitting on the window of a library and not doing more important stuff like chasing rats. Rats which are probably being bad and need to die. The cat opened its mouth, maybe meowing at Taeyong, and he, being the 5 year old that he was, stuck out his tongues at it scoffing when the cat continued meowing and licking its pairs before going back to judging Taeyeong. 

Taeyong almost moved away, until he noticed someone walking towards the cat. He pet the cat gently and cooed at it. And the stupid cat was all, aww please pet me more, i'm just an innocent homeless cat who lives for attention. I did a good job pissing off Taeyong for standing you up, didn't I? because ofcourse who else would the 'someone' be except Jaehyun? It was as if the whole universe (a/n: that is me) wanted to conspire against him and somehow land Jaehyun in front of him everytime he avoided the younger.

Though a small part of him melted watching the interaction. Jaehyun had a gentle smile as he kept petting the cat and the cat kept pushing into Jaehyun's warm hands. And no Taeyong was not jealous. And he definitely did not imagine Jaehyun petting his hair as lovingly...stop!

Suddenly the cat started to hit the glass with his paw. And the action caught the blonde boy's attention, and he squinted at his direction.   
Obviously, fate couldn't let him live. 

Taeyong froze, before remembering that the window was tinted and there was no way Jaehyun would see him...unless he...the other boy had a similar idea apparently, after squinting at the window long enough, he cupped his hands and proceeded to put his face against the glass. And at that point Taeyong panicked. He ended up banging his forehead against the table, right on top of the book and just froze. 

For a few seconds there was silence, and Taeying didn't dare move. Then heard it, the consistent knocking on the glass next to him. But he didn't move a muscle, he was playing dead so the lion could just walk away.

The knocking stops. But Taeyong is still scared. So he uses his academy award winning acting skills to scrunch up his nose, turn in head, and wiggle a bit as if trying to get comfortable. And then, through his lashes he checked if the boy was still there.

He wasn't.

But that damn cat was still there, with its head tilted and looking at Taeyong with an unimpressed glare which pretty much confirmed his suspicion that the cat was evil. Oh well. At least Jaehyun's gone.

But damn he's such an embarrassment. Poor Jaehyun must've waited for him and he didn't show. He hand pulled at his hair as he sat up, glaring back at the cat and even sticking his tongue out for effect. Cursing at it in every language he knew, in his mind of course. Stupid cat had to give him off.  
That being said...could the cat see through the tinted glass?   
Is that a new cat ability he wasn't aware of?  
Or was this really Satan, and you know Satan can do anything.

"Did you have a good nap Taeyong?"

Taeyong jumped, his head hitting the glass as he turned towards the sound, it hurt, but hey the cat was now running away, so there was the silver lining.

"Oh hey Jaehyun!" Taeyong laughed his fake, but hopefully not too fake, laugh and rubbed his head. Jaehyun though had a smile on his face.

"You stood me up and slept through our date." he mused. Sitting down next to Taeyong, and rested his head on his hand. 

"D-date?" Taeyong swears he heard someone gasp but he dismissed it as the sound of his soul screaming from within because did Jaehyun just say date?

"Mhmm...I waited so long. All alone. And I didn't feel like eating on my own, so I packed up lunch came looking for you. And I found you." Jaehyun's dimpled smile was back, but his eyes held a glint in them, which kind of told him that maybe his act wasn't as smooth and academy-level as he thought, but as long as Jaehyun didn't mention it he wasn't going to either. But damn Jung Jaehyun knew.

He let the excited puppy Jaehyun drag him out the library and all the way back home, because both of them were free in the afternoon. Jaehyun got what he wanted, and Taeyong didn't exactly hate sitting opposite Jaehyun and listening to him go on about his day, and basketball and his friends. No, Taeyong found that he actually enjoyed it quite a lot. Plus Jaehyun had apparently forgotten about his deo and Taeyong found himself being able to enjoy his scent without being too obvious. He hopes. Jaehyun is still in the process of testing deos, and Taeyong secretly hopes that they never find one that he likes.

Lunch had been going well until he received a message from him dad, attaching a screenshot from the video he had reported at least a million times but still keeps popping right back up. It was one where he was already down and Jaehyun was just about to fall. It would've looked hilarious in any alternate universe where it wasn't related to Taeyong, only it was, and the message following it only made it worse.

From WenDad:  
'Tell me your boyfriend picked you up and took you to the doctors after that!'

Taeyong really wanted to ignore the message, and he almost succeeded until Jaehyun caught sight of him fidgeting and decided to poke his nose in to the business.

"Tell him I did! I did right! Why won't you tell him? You're making me look bad in front of your parents! They'll think I am a bad boyfriend and I'm not taking care of you or something." And Taeyong was speechless because when did that happen? after an hour of whining Taeyong had to reply with a 'Yes he did' thus confirming their  (read: his parents) suspicions, and causing him to receive a flurry of messages in his family group about practice of safe sex and related shit, not to mention his 'Dad' actually went ahead and texted him on private giving him tips, because he gotta keep the family name high. He muted the group and blocked her for a while.

The next day, he was yet again being dragged across campus by Jaehyun. A hundred different pairs eyes glaring at him as they passed by. Taeyong wonders if it had anything to with their intertwined hands, because that gives the completely wrong signal. Right? They aren't dating. Right?

Ten is sniggering mess everytime Jaehyun sits next to them at lunch and looks at Taeyong expectantly until he get acknowledged. "He's like a puppy around you." he mused, laughing harder when Johnny started imitate Jaehyun's face in said situation. And Taeyong, while finding it cute on Jaehyun, thought it was utterly disgusting on Johnny. He said as much, and to Ten's amusement, Johnny fell to the floor dramatically crying, because 'his feelings were being trampled upon by TaeTae'.

The highlight of the week wasn't that though. Apparently Jaehyun wasn't the only one who liked to follow him around and force his presence on him. He had attracted the attention of a particularly strange boy from one of his classes who absolutely wouldn't let him go until they 'got to know each other' better over coffee. It took Ten 10 minutes (no pun intended) to find out more about the Ji Hansol who had asked his Taeyong out. And only after his 'ok' did Taeyong get to meet up this guy.

And of course, like the substitute parents they were, Johnny and Ten tagged along and sat a few table away from him and Hansol. Who turned out to be Yuta's ex. He had recognised him from the photos Yuta showed him back then, and was just interested in knowing how the Japanese was doing. Taeyong was slightly ashamed in admitting that he has no clue about his cousin at all. 

But that went well, and he actually ended up making a friend. On his own, he might've not initiated it, but at the end of the 'date' he had Hansol's number on his phone and a very grumpy Jaehyun on his couch. "I have known you longer but how come he get's your number first?" and before he could even ask how he knew about his play-date the younger was shoving his phone onto his face, with Johnny's chat window open. The other had apparently taken a pic of him and Hansol and sent it to Jaehyun, for reasons he probably wouldn't understand. But he did find one thing weird.

Was Jaehyun jealous?

"You want my number?" So that is how he ended up getting hourly updates about Jaehyun, though not all those updates were from Jaehyun. Ten ended up being a huge Jaeyong shipper, along with his mother. According to him, they were already smitten and were too dense to realise it, and Taeyong so kindly took it upon himself to explain to the Thai that they weren't in those gay fanction he reads all night (Ten added then that he re-enacts some of them with Johnny in bed and Taeyong swore that was not something he needed to know). The Thai would drag him to basketball matches he has no interest in because 'I thought you liked sweaty Jaehyun' and of course he did, he liked to look at one and smell one too.

But he wasn't going to admit that.

It was after one such match that Taeyong started suspecting the 'sleeping around' rumor to be true, though he had hoped he didn't get a live demonstration for that. He had walked off to buy some water for his friends after the match while Ten went to cozy up to a sweaty Johnny to satisfy his own kink. On his way back, for some odd, unspecified and ungodly, reason, Taeyong decided to investigate weird noises coming from a place where it wasn't supposed to be coming from. Weird noises which sounded like someone was in pain. 

He shouldn't have. He should've just walked on and minded his own business. And maybe then, he could've maintained the flawless image he had of Jaehyun in his mind. But he was Lee Taeyong for a reason, and the reason was that he lacked social skill and was dumb and shouldn't be called human. But he literally couldn't unsee the look on his blonde roommate's face as he pushed his hips into some faceless person's ass. At first he was just going to call out and ask what was going on, but the a particularly loud 'Jay' cut through his confidence and he stopped himself. It did weird things to poor inexperienced Taeyong along with scarring him for life, when he finally realised what was going on. He ended up running away and hiding again. Though this time it was secondhand embarrassment more than anything else, and a peck of something Taeyong wasn't aware of enough to understand yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> P.S. Sorry if this isn't as good as the previous ones...:(


	5. All Good Things come to an End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaehyun is an idiot...especially when it comes to Taeyong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two more chapters then I can start simultaneously updating here too...enjoy ^^

It's been approximately 2 hours and 36 minutes since Taeyong decided to lock himself inside his room. He had ignored calls from Ten, Johnny and even Jaehyun. he just needed to be alone. for some reason what he saw bothered him much more than he had realised. Initially he had been just embarrassed to have witnessed someone so close to him in such a compromising position, but he quickly realised there was a pang of something else when he had reached his flat and was greeted with silence instead of the loud welcome. He paused for a moment, trying to concentrate on himself. He was breathless, and his chest like it was constricting, His face was sweaty and he felt like he had someone put a huge weight on his shoulder. It was a bit of an over reaction for having run from the stadium to his apartment, and a very small voice, at the way back of his head mocked his 'age' which he decided to just ignore.  

He couldn't understand why. Taeyong dragged his feet to his room, locking it right after closing it. He really wanted to be alone and sort his own feelings out. He fell onto his bed, heaving. And before he knew it tears started forming in his eyes. For some reason, it felt like his heart was in pain, as if it was breaking.

Taeyong recongnised this feeling from when he first got his heart broken. Unlike what Johnny and Ten think, he had fallen in love before. Hopelessly so, in fact there are times when he wondered if he was even over that boy. Of course the object of his affection was not aware of his feelings, in fact Taeyong would love to keep it that way. Even confessing just to get closure was somewhat out of the question.

Because his first love just happened to be the American exchange he had met back in high school. The boy who stuck beside him wherever he went. The boy who fell in love with his best friend. The sports major, Seo Johnny.

He actually had been more social back in school, he didn't have many friends, but he knew people and people knew him. The whole school population had pretty much pegged him as asexual though. Simply because he had never shown any interest in that way towards another person. He had of course had gotten confessions, more than Ten, and even dated a girl in middle school, which was when he realised that he was gay. It had been a roller coaster ride for him, and he came out to his best friend and parents in tears. His personality from the beginning was kind of introverted, and the knowledge that he was gay only pushed him in further.

That's when he met Johnny and he was swept off his feet. The boy was his exact opposite, loud, bashful, confident, sporty, social and popular. His smile held the world in it's command. Johnny's positivity was such a welcome addition in Taeyong's life, that it literally took him exactly an hour of touring the excited boy around school to fall in deep. 

He should've have sensed the sparks between Ten and Johnny when he introduced the two. But with him being the dense idiot he was, he didn't. He spent his days talking to Johnny in school and texting him once he was back home. And Johnny was very attentive, he would walk him to class, and if they had one together he would sit with him and he would pick Taeyong in his team first everytime they P.E. Johnny told him all about his life in America and with his word Taeyong was just mesmerized, because damn Johnny was everything he had ever wanted.

And with every second they spent with each other, he just fell deeper in love. It had gotten to the point where he could only think of that boy, even during his exams. He had actually written all the 'Johns' in his exams as 'Johnnys' and his Chemistry teacher had to remind him in class that it was John Dalton's Atomic Theory, not Johnny Dalton. But back then, Taeyong always felt that the Johnny was just so much better than John. It had more feeling too it. Of course that was his love struck heart speaking. Luckily enough, it was one the the classes he didn't share with either of his friends as thus saved him some lifelong teasing. But of course the very next day his Johnny Locke clean slate theory was revealed and this time he wasn't so lucky.

Ten laughed at his face, while Johnny simply shook his head in amusement. Ten teased him about the whole day, while Johnny just smiled bashfully. Johnny never teased, in fact he used to protect him, and that just made his feelings grow. 

But ofcourse, his liking for the transfer student had only grown as time passed and he just couldn't hold it in anymore. He knew Ten suspected something, he had known the boy since kindergaten, when the Thai had, in his excitement pushed the shy Taeyong into the sandbox. Both boys had cried their eyes out until their mothers came to pick them up and they became friends over a tearful sorry and strawberry ice cream. The thing was, Ten knew him in and out, and Taeyong was sure his best friend would understand.

So on a saturday afternoon, the boy skipped to his best friends house. Ten's mom would be at work and they would have the whole house to themselves. Taeyong just wanted to pour our his feelings to the Thai. He had kept it in so long. So he was excited. In his mind, he had already built up a castle. Him confession his feeling to ten, who would the proceed to tease him to hell and back, but then he would engulf him in a hug because 'OMG, Tae you are finally in love~' and then the two would settle down, get pizza and watch some stupid videos until Ten's mom was home and they split of the day after a Thai dinner.

Of course the castle came crashing down when he entered the house. The first thing that struck him as odd when when he walked into the house, was the silence. He wasn't used to it being like that. Usually when he entered Ten would be blasting some random k-pop song and dancing along with it, and pulling Taeyong along to join him. But on that day he was welcome by a rather familiar looking sneakers one by the couch and the other lying a few feet away. Seeming like it had been removed in a hurry. He should've guessed something was really off when he found a shirt that didn't belong on the staircase and certainly didn't belong to Ten, judging from the size. He walked to his friends room, the stillness of the house making him subconsciously tip-toe to make lesser noise to. When he quietly opened the door. That's when his heart shattered into a million little pieces. A whispered confession reached his hear through the only just slightly ajar door, the voice the same as the one he imagined would speak those words to him when he confessed. I love you. He didn't want to keep watching, but his body would  not move because of the shock. Through the gap he watched his best friend and his first love naked, wrapped around each other, whispering confessions into what they thought was privacy, but they had an unwilling audience to hear it all. The tears would stop no matter how much he wanted to. And he couldn't move no matter how much he wished.

The next day, a Sunday which he would usually spend with Johnny and Ten, Taeyong spent in bed, looking at the vacantly ceiling wondering just what he hadn't noticed. What all had he missed? Just when had Johnny and Ten gotten so close to the point they fell in love? but his obtuse ass hadn't noticed one fucking thing. His tears had dried up on his way home, He wasn't even sad, and shocked, but mostly what was left was the feeling of betrayal and marvel. 

Betrayal because there was no way Ten wouldn't have known about his feelings towards the taller and marvel because he wasn't even angry at Ten or Johnny. After all, why would Johnny look at him when there was someone like Ten?

But of course, maybe Ten hadn't known? Maybe Taeyong was just over thinking things too much? Maybe Ten had no clue just how much his best friend was in love with Johnny, Taeyong was sure Ten wouldn't do this if he knew.

Perhaps that was where it started. Taeyong's habit of running. He avoided the situation, but he couldn't avoid his only two friends. So come monday, he sat next to them during lunch, let Johnny walk him to class and sit next to him in classes the shared. He sat back and watched as Ten and Johnny tried to hide their relationship from him. Because of course Ten would know how much it will hurt Taeyong. But that didn't stop you did it? Taeyong would think at night, when he didn't have to hide anymore, because his room literally had no one else to listen to him.

He wondered how long they would keep it. 

They were half way through their senior year when Ten finally snapped and told him. They had hid it from him for more than a year, and underneath all the fake shock Taeyong had been impressed the Thai was able to keep something from him that long. Of course, Ten had slightly modified the story and told him that they had just begun dating that summer and Taeyong took it in because what else could he do? It's not like he could tell them what he had seen, it was a moment he never wanted to relive.

And then one day, his mother came home, announcing her intention to remarry, Taeyong might've been excited. It had just been his mom and him since his father passed away years ago and the prospect that at least his mother had found love again made Taeyong incredibly happy. He hadn't expected his 'dad' to be another lady and a mother herself. But Wendy was really nice, and her son Mark was someone he could get along with, if he tried. He din't know then that would be the breaking point for him.

Because Mark hated him, Your mother turned my mother gay, or  keep your gay self away from me, were stuff he become he used to hearing withing just a month of them moving in. The guestroom had been closed for a long time and both the mothers wanted to clean it out for Mark before he could move in, so they had to share a room. So it was behind closed doors that Taeyong saw a face of Mark no one else would believe. Out there Mark was an angel, perfect in everyway, just like Johnny. He watched the two women coo over the 13 year old kid. His aegyo winning over his mom in an instant. 

He didn't want to feel it, but he was feeling like he was being replaced. Ten replaced him with Johnny, as the number one most contacted person (they barely talked or hung out outside of school anymore) and his mom with her new stepson. It was one of the reasons he wanted to move away to a college far away from home so he could stay at the hostel. His mom had cried, but he just had to leave. It was just pure coincidence that he and Johnny got accepted into the same college, and so of course Ten had to follow.

All that was just a few months ago, but to Taeyong if felt like a lifetime away. He was really happy in college. He loved his classes, being a lit major,  he could literally just read book all day. He loved writing and so he was always the first to hand in his weekly assignments, and he just loved the general unassuming air of the campus. It didn't matter who you were as long as you were yourself. So he pushed the hast aside. Whatever it had happened had happened, and he knew there was no point in his brief travel to the past. The thing was, Taeyong was used to getting hurt, and he was used to people not liking him back, so then why had Jaehyun's action broken his heart?

Because he was too nice to you. And you like him?

Taeyong sighed, his sub-consicous was being a bitch as usual. Always having answers to rhetorical questions. The fact was that even if Taeyong had feelings for Jaehyun, they were no where as close as his to Johnny, heck he didn't even know he had a crush until exactly 3 hours ago. And he was regretting even thinking about his flatmate whom he had embarassed himself in front of a million time, in that light. He liked Jaehyun as a friend too. And he really didn't want to lose him because of his awkward self. He scoffed in mock amusement, he was practically back his middle school self, only this time it was another boy who had captured his attention.

He was saved from drowning in self pity when he heard the door to his flat open and close loudly. He could hear panting from the other side and no Taeyong did not  get up and rush to have his ears pressed against the door, straining to check whether is roommate was alone. (Of course he did)

"Taeyong! You in there?" The said boy fell back at the intensity of the shout. He dragged his body a little away from the door before replying, because he had the sense to realise that Jaehyun was right outside his door right now. The question was though, why was he even here?

"Yeah I'm here. I'm sorry I left. I'm not feeling too well. I'll see you tomorrow Jaehyun." He said, trying to bring the finality in his tone, a hint that he wanted to be alone, which of course went over the other's head because the younger was now frantically trying to open the door from outside. Taeyong was lucky he had remembered to lock it.

"Just open the door and let me see you? Are you okay? We've been looking everywhere for you!!"

"Oh." He didn't know how to respond because a, selfish and utterly ridiculous, thought crossed his mind, maybe Jaehyun had run around looking for him? Maybe that why he was panting? "Ugh, I just wanted to get home, I suddenly got sick." He groaned for effect, you know because acting has to be flawless.

"Just let me see your face."

"I'm on the bed It's hard to get up." He groaned again. 

"Damn it!!" The was a bang on the door and Taeyong flinched at the sudden display of frustration from the younger. He heard a particularly loud sigh after the gap of silence. "Okay, we'll just do this your way hyung." Taeyong hummed weakly, partly trying to keep up his act and partly because he was shocked. He heard the footsteps move away from his door, and a soft click of a door closing, signalling that the boy had retired for the night.

Taeyong stayed on the floor, his head still trying to get past the frustration in Jaehyun's voice. Had he really been worried about him? Had he really run around looking for him?

After a while he decided to go out and get himself a glass of water. He was thirsty and he figured the boy would be asleep by now. He got up, being so slow and quite. He hadn't heard any movements from outside, so he was sure the younger would be asleep by now. His eyes scanned their common room cautiously before stepping out. Breathing in relief when he saw it was empty.

He smelt him before he heard him.

"You feeling better now?" Jaehyun's voice ripped through the dark, jolting Taeyong. The poor boy fell onto the floor, clutching his heart at the unexpected voice. Taeyong looked at the source. There right beside his door, on the floor, sat Jung Jaehyun. His hair was a mess, as if he had run his fingers through his hair a dozen times. He eyes didn't have any glint of amusement and even in the dark Taeyong could tell that he was frowning

"Ye-yeah. I was thirsty." he croaked.

The boy only hummed in acknowledgment before getting up and walking to kitchen. Taeyong followed. Neither of them bothering to turn the light on. On his part, Taeyong was more focused on his heart beat as he watched Jaehyun retrieve a glass of water for him. His cheeks flushed when the younger placed the glass gently on the table in front of him and seated himself opposite. Did he really have a crush on Jaehyun? 

"What did I do wrong?"

"Not-"

"Don't even bother. You always run and hide whenever something happens. You never tell me whats on you mind." Jaehyun was dead serious, and Taeyong was glad that it was dark, he wouldn't be able to handle the accusatory look he knew he was getting.

"I'm fine though." Taeyong's cheeks burned harder as he remembered just what had triggered this.

"Taeyong do you know what major I am?" Taeyong shock his head, he had never bothered asking because he thought the boy was a sports major like Johnny., they were together most of the time. It seemed he was wrong. "Psychology. That's my major. I might not be an expret yet, but I'm observant enough of people to know that when Lee Taeyong lies he tends to look away from the person he is lying to. And right now, I can tell you for sure that the glass you are looking at is not me." He continued when Taeyong didn't speak. 

"I need to go." Taeyong got up to leave, he was dead nervous, no one had figured out that about him before, and even if they did, Taeyong wasn't aware. It made him nervous. But he was stopped by Jaehyun's strong grip on his wrist.

"You always do this. Why do you avoid confrontation? Since our first meeting you always avoid talking to me, or being around me when something happens. How do you think that makes me feel? I'm literally walking on egg shells around you, I have no ide what I have done half the time, and it's just really frustrating you know! I'm trying to be a good friend to you here, but you keep pushing me away."

"Well no one asked you to bother." Good friend. That stung a but more than it should've, after all, that is what Taeyong thought of Jaehyun as, right? "A good friend doesn't just randomly start shouting at his sick friend." He said, louder than he had intended, that label hitting him in all the wrong places.

"Gosh, you are one to talk! At least I am not very obviously pinning over his best friends boyfriend!" 

A loud gasp echoed through the flat, and blood drained from Taeyong's head as he heard the words repeat in his head. Jaehyun knew. The other boy was now apologising, probably alarmed by Taeyong's silence, but the dark haired boy tuned him out. 

"I think I'll go to bed now Jaehyun."

They blonde stopped talking. Had the lights been on, maybe Taeyong would've noticed the look of guilt and defeat on his face. But then given his legendary observational skills that was highly unlikely. But then Jaehyun had brought upon himself.  All he could do was watch as Taeyong walked away for the night, and maybe tomorrow he could apologise, and things could go back to normal.

At least that was his sincere wish.


	6. Overight Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well...it's all just a huge mess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drama Drama Drama

Of course Taeyong was miserable. He couldn't sleep a wink, and he had a really bad headache. He was sure his eyes had bags under them as he walked to class. He got lots weird stares, probably something to do with how he would just randomly stop blankly in the middle of the hall before realising that he was going in the wrong direction and then curse and walk back only to realise that he was walking the right way before.

It happened a few more times, to the point where Taeyong was getting frustrated and confused and questioning himself. Not to mention he had actually forgotten where he was supposed to be headed anyway. Maybe that was why. So he paused for a second, and someone shook they head at his behaviour, probably contemplating calling for help. But he had pressing matter to think, so he threw a glare at the human who dared look down on him and continued thinking.

Where was I going again? Ah right. The canteen.  

Right when he turned around, ready to dash towards the canteen, someone actually  asked if he was ok. Of course Taeyong kept walking ahead as if he hadn't heard. Because he actually had, but wasn't interested in answering. Did he look ok? No right? So then why ask? 

"Hey!" The boy followed him, catching up and walking next to him. Taeyong threw him a semi-interested look, and if he had been in a better state-of-mind maybe he would've been flustered and greeted him back. But right now he just kept his mouth shut, and increased his pace. "It's Taeyong right?" He nodded, now kind of interested. Who was this guy? Why does he know his name? Why was he smiling like that? Why was it making Taeyong want to slap him? Why was he walking next to him? Why does he look like a wet puppy? And why did he smell like pineapple on pizza (aka disgusting)?

"I'm Moon Taeil, Jaehyun and Doyoung's classmate, even though I am like a year older than you guys." Damn, even though the boy answered a few his questions, the name Jaehyun did weird things to him. And he lost interest in poodle boy again.

Their morning had been so super awkward. Taeyong was half dead, half asleep and totally not in a good mood. He wasn't exactly pissed, because he was too sleepy to even care about how Jaehyun had parctically found out his well kept secret and called him out for it. But that did disturb him enough to let him not sleep. So, he wasn't really very awake when he had walked into the kitchen to grab some coffee. It had probably shocked Jaehyun that he was even there, and not hiding like usual. The boy was acting all awkward and shy and weird and that annoyed Taeyong more than he already was, 'cuz it should be him who should be doing that not that idiot. So he might or might not have, unintentionally or intentionally, cursed at the boy, instead of thanking him for the pancakes the younger had bashfully placed in front of him.

The Fuck you instead of a Thank you was probably not what Jaehyun had been expecting as his responce. Because the rest of the 15 minutes in that room were suffocating and this time it was Jaehyun who ran away first.

So now Taeyong knew how frustrating it felt when that happened. Noted.

That didn't make him feel any better though, if anything it made him more frustrated. So now he hated everything with a passion, and had a half awake brain.

"Ah you psychology major too?" His mouth talked, deciding to serve its fuction. "Fucking pricks the lot of you are." without the usual filter ofcourse.

Taeil let out a very shocked and embaressed laugh, but didn't sound offended. Even though a very deep and slightly conscious part of Taeyong was hurtling itself over imaginary sub-conscious cliffs because of his broken language filter.

"You must be very unhappy with my people for you to say that." Taeil mused. Gently directing Taeyong in the right direction, because Taeyong almost just entered the ladies washroom, and no one wants that many scars.

"Nah. Just Jaehyun." Taeil laughed out loud at that, shocking even Taeyong. He was sure he didn't say anything even remotely funny. In fact, he expected that the boy would atually defend Jaehyun instead, but here he was laughing his ass off for no reason. Taeyong entertained the idea that mybe it was an unspoken, unwritten, rule that psychologists must be half-crack themselves. That would explain a lot of things.

Like why Dooyoung looks like a scared bunny all the time and why Jaehyun talks as if he flushed his brain down the toilet.

"S-sorry, it's just that, you're the first person to ever talk like that about Jaehyun. And I've been around that guy for years." He managed to communicate between panting and wiping a stray tear from his cheek. Truth be told, Taeyong wouldn't have said it about Jaehyun, but right now he has every right to do so. Taeil's lips were still stretched into a huge grin and Taeyong blushed, because Moon Taeil was kind of adorable, like a puppy, and reminded him of his last pet Ruby. "You hungry?"

"Huh?" Before he had realised it, the two of them were already at the canteen where he was supposed to meet up Ten and Johnny, and an idiot with his bunny rabbit friend. He nodded and they made their way to the counter, ordering a juice each and a sandwich before joining their friends.

As soon as they soon them approach Ten shot up and came running to Taeyong.  

"Gosh look at you. You didn't get sleep did you?" Ten clicked his tongue in disapproval and tried to set Taeyong's unkept bed hair, while he just opted not to respond. Why was everyone asking obvious questions?

"I knew it. He's such a cutie when he's sleepy, but the exact opposite when he doesn't get enough sleep. Jaehyun sweetie take notes, your number one priority should be Taeyong should get enough sleep." Johnny started laughing loudly and patted on the spot next to him, signalling Taeyong to take the spot, and being the bitchy persona he was in right now, he went pushed Ten away and sat. Not paying heed to the obnoxiously loud Thai who started throwing a tantrum because... Hey!! That was my seat! Johnny!!

Amidst the noise, Taeyong lifted his eyes and they locked directly onto Jaehyun's. The blond was looking at him cautiously, as if he would explode any second. Or was he looking expectantly, as if he expected Taeyong to smile at him.

Taeyong choose to grant the former. He threw him a pointed glare, while taking a bite off his sandwich and chewing it aggressively, and the younger immediate flinched, probably shocked and confused. But Ten was right, Taeyong was a bitch when he was sleep deprived. Most of days that is, sometimes he was just a whiny baby that Johnny liked to pamper, but today was bitchy Taeyong day. So put up with it people.

Jaehyun blinked at him, eyes still locked. And Taeyong was getting irritated. He hated anything staring at him, for more than five seconds and Jaehyun was way over that limit already. So as any fully cognitively functional person would do, he growled at the boy.

The whole table froze. Bunny Doyoung's eyes were so wide they covered half his face, not to mention, his mouth was full of food so he did really look like a rabbit right then, and Taeyong would've cooed, but he was in bitch -idc- mode. Taeil was giggling, clearly amused since about the whole situation since the beginning. Ten was shaking with laughter while Johnny was patting his back, as if trying to calm a pet.

Jaehyun's reaction to his 'growl' took the cake. The boy face was red, like RED. And he gasped, a second too late because it took a while for his mind to process that Taeyong that just growled at him. Taeyong, despite his current mood smiled, though it was more of a smirk at the moment. he was enjoying it all until an idiot decided to ruin his mood.

"Did you just growl at Jaehyun Tae?" Johnny mused, still patting his back "Babe maybe we should take him in for the night. I think poor Jaehyun is the target this time." Ten only smirked back, nodding. He wanted to sneer and point out that Jaehyun was anything but poor and that his whole existence was reason for this situation which was going to bite him the ass later, he was sure. 

But currently he was rather satisfied with the expression on Jaehyun's face after his little act of retaliation. So he stooped himself from throwing his food at Ten.

"Ugh, excuse me?" They all turned to her. The girl was pretty, his long black hair reached down to her waist. Her pale skin glowed even the dull lighting of the canteen and her cheeks were red as she grabbed the attention of the most good looking guys of the campus, namely Jay and his gang . She was the kind of girl that Taeyong would've fallen for if he was straight, but thankfully he wasn't straight.

So, since she served no purpose in his life right at moment, Taeyong wanted her gone. He was about express as much when her eyes found Taeyong's, before shifting back to Jaehyun nervously. And Taeyong realised that he was still glaring, though now it was at the girl.

"What do you want?" he deadpanned, kind of over the initial 'awe'. The girl blushed even harder and avoided Taeyong's eyes, fixing them on Jaehyun instead. And that did not sit well with Taeyong at all. Nope, not even a bit. Jaehyun gulped, probably feeling the death glare directed at him at the moment, but he was too confused by the fast pace of events to move, his mind was still replaying Taeyong's growl. "Listen, we all have a life, so you can either talk or go away." 

"Uh...can I talk to--" she was looking  between Jaehyun and Taeyong. And he still didn't like that she was blushing and looking at Jaehyun. He understood he didn't like it and so as a solution she just had to leave.

"No. Now go away." Taeyong stood up, glaring and the girl, getting scared enough, took a few steps back, almost taking off in run before coming to a stop. They boys watched as she seemingly contemplated something, giving herself some kind of pep-up before backtracking and facing Taeyong determinedly. A cute frown etched on her face, which normal Taeyong would've found endearing, but this wasn't him so he found it even more irritating.

"No. I will not leave until I have said what I want to say to you."

"To me?" Taeyong and the rest of the table were thrown off.

"I came to say that I like you Taeyong-ssi. Since the first day of college when you helped me pick up my books when the slipped form my hands. It was just a crush, but the I saw you at the cafe two months ago and you smiled at me....and...and I...we haven't talked but I've always wanted to, I tried but I only just gathered by courage and I am not going to run away without confessing. I like you, I really, like you a lot. Anyways, please accept my gift even if you probably don't feel the same." 

Classic. Perfect.

The girl, then walked away after gingerly placing the gift in front of a flabbergasted Taeyong. Her confident announcement making him admire her and hate her at the same time. Right at that moment Taeyong didn't really care about how the other's reacted, but he knew that he was never more jealous of another person. He picked up the gift, looking at it blankly. It had a letter attached which he skimmed through, searching for a name. Which he got. 

Kim Yerim.

After college he got dragged off by a very excited Johnny and a proud Ten. They had started throwing questions at him the moment Yerim had left and a very loud You never told me about that incident! which he ignored. Jaehyun had been super silent, Dooyoung was confused and Taeil was still laughing. In Ten's flat, they discussed this Yerim in more detail, with Ten digging up information and going on and on about how Jaehyun was better than Yerim. And in Taeyong's opinion the fact that anything with a dick was going to win, and Jaehyun was a whole dick. So yeah he won by a huge margin.

"Like Jaehyun.." Ten started again. And he was slightly miffed. Because he was still kind of sore about the incident from yesterday. The scene with Yerim had only distacted him temporarily, and he hadn't gotten a chance to get that nap Ten had promised him when he dragged him away from college. So the Thai talking about the boy only made the boy even more annoyed than it should've.

Not to mention the fact that Taeyong had been having this thought creeping up into his mind since yesterday. 

Ten usually never teased him about guys, he never bothered with anyone even if the were crushing on Taeyong for real. Like he just let Yerim topic drop after he found out she was a fashion major. Taeyong had found that interesting, but Ten quickly kept diverted the topic back to Jaehyun. Comparing the two as if he wanted him to chose Jaehyun, which was not even an option right then. And it only seemed get even more odd.

Ten's behaviour was too out of character, and Taeyong's stupid dense ass was catching up only now. He had fucking given them a couple name, when they weren't even anywhere near being a couple. He wouldn't be trying something right?

"Ten stop it." he warned. His head was spinning, not knowing what to think. Plus he he was starting to feel that headache come back.

"Come on, give Jaehyun a chance! How can you be mad at him? He literally ran around the whole stadium looking for you. He even ran back. Why are you being such a difficult person? He's a great guy!" Johnny voiced his agreement from the kitchen. Where he was busy making spaghetti for dinner. On usual good days Taeyong would help him. "Just imagine how good you guys you would look!" But then again, on usual good days, Taeyong would be asleep on Ten's couch by now.

"Would you just stop please!" he said louder. It apparently didn't sit well with the everyday bitchy diva Ten. So he retaliated, which only further aggravated Taeyong.

To be honest, there aren't many times when Taeyong loses it, he usually bottles up his feelings. But today was one the days he let it  go. One moment Ten was shouting at him how angelic Prince JJ is He eats pizza with us, even though he hates it, because he knows you love it. Which hadn't made sense to Taeyong because Jaehyun had eaten pretty well that day, and  yes, he had been watching him. But that was no reason for Ten to push him. With every praise for Jaehyun that fell from Ten's mouth, Taeyong found his guts twisting more and more in annoyance. And he just burst.

"You're just trying to make sure I'm not crushing on Johnny anymore!!" he heard the sound of something dropping in the kitchen, but it was already too late, and his mouth wouldn't stop working now that it had started.

"Wha-"

"Oh don't even pretend! You knew!! You knew since the beginning that I liked him. Why else would you hide it from me for one and a half years before telling me?"

"You...knew...how?" Ten sounded winded and shocked. But not in the least bit ashamed or guilty. 

"I saw you! I was there in the house that day...and I saw it; I heard it all! Yet you never breathed a word. Nothing until we were graduating and even then you lied!" Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Johnny rushing out of the kitchen, but he was too caught up in the moment to stop and look at the boys expression. "Even now, you are trying to get Jaehyun involved because of that right? To distract me from 'your man'?" Taeyong's voice reduced to a whisper towards the end. It was finally hitting him, he had actually said it all out loud and not just in his mind. And he was so embarrassed.

Ten was speechless. His eyes were wide and he paled. Taeyong had never seen Ten like that, so vulnerable. And Taeyong hated himself. He didn't want to stay anymore, and like usual he took off in a run, not bothering to even look at Johnny to see how much damage he had done.

He over did it. He was sure.

He didn't go back to his flat either. He wanted to just be away from all of them, so he called to only other person whose number had on his phone.

"Hey Sol, can I crash at yours tonight?"

And Hansol found him, roughly ten minutes later, on the stairs leading his apartment complex, crying because he knew he had fucked it all up. Hansol didn't ask anything as he engulfed his ex-boyfriend's brother into his arms and let him cry. Yuta and him might not be together anymore, but they were still in touch. Truth be told, it was when Yuta told him that his cousin was in the same college as him that he decided to get acquainted with him. Taeyong had always been Yuta's favorite, he would talk about all the things they did as kids non stop, and as a result even Hansol had developed a soft spot for this boy. Plus, he knew, from Yuta, that Taeyong rarely cried, and he was crying now, which meant something was very wrong.

So Hansol only hugged him tighter, and let the boy calm down.

Taeyong let Hansol console him and guide him back to his flat, he was too tired to push the boy away, so he let himself be held even though he wasn't exactly comforted by the contact. Just as they entered, someone, who he is guessing was Hansol's flatmate, rushed out of one of the room, pulling on a jacket while hurriedly talking into a phone. Only when he paused after noticing the two did Taeyong recognise the boy as Taeil. Taeyong wasn't to scoff, because what are the odds, but lately he was getting used to the idea of life wannted to fuck with him so he took it silently.

"Taeil everything okay?" Hansol asked, as he watched Taeil breath out in exaggerated relief and walk up to Taeyong in long strides before engulfing the  poor teary boy in a hug and the former tense up at the gesture. 

"Thank God. It's ok Sol, Jaehyun was worried since he didn't get back and Johnny warned him you had run off after a fight. You fought with Ten?" Taeyong nodded, his eyes filling up again. He automatically buried his face into Taeil's neck as he unleashed a fresh set of tears. "It's ok, it'll be fine." Taeil said patting the boy's back while Hansol went to prepare them some tea. He felt that maybe the boy needed it.

"Do you want me to call Jaehyun? He's out looking for you too." Taeil asked carefully, catching on from the adorably guilty looks Jaehyun had been giving Taeyong at lunch, that somehow he was involved in this too. He almost thought the crying boy in his arms would refuse, but to his shock Taeyong pulled away wipping his tears with his slevees and sniffled a little as he nodded his head. 

And Jaehyun came, hardly taking a few minutes after reading Taeil's message.

Taeyong was sipping on his tea when Jaehyun rang the door bell, and as soon as the two saw each other, Taeyong started crying again, and Jaehyun was shocked. He just watched as the smaller walked right into his arms seeking comfort. He recalled that Ten had infact told him that Taeyong tends to seek familiarity when he's upset, and considering the situation, Jaehyun was the most familiar option to him right now.

"I really messed it all up this time Jaehyun." Taeyong's muffled sobs broke through the apartment and both Hansol and Taeil exchanged pained and helpless glances. While Jaehyun rubbed the boys back, rocking their bodies and trying to comfort him. 

He just held the boy tighter, closer, hoping Taeyong doesn't run away again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one more to go!!


	7. The Going get Tough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taeyong is in for some cuddles and shit

Taeyong woke up with his face buried into a firm and comforting chest, and lean but strong arms wrapped around him. It made him feel grounded. His own arms were wrapped tightly around the person. Whom his now conscious mind identified as Jaehyun. He wanted to pull away, and potentially push Jaehyun away even further, but considering how much he has messed up his whole life yesterday, he believed he could allow himself this.

Just this once he'll be selfish. For now he'll just take whatever he is offered.

 

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

 

His heart was beating like crazy.

They were so close, and he was wrapped up in that comforting scent. That was all he really needed. It seemed his hosts had been kind enough to drape the two with a blanket. That only intensified the smell, and made the whole experience more cozy and Taeyong was getting really comfortable.

To be honest, yesterday when Jaehyun and his glorious smell entered the flat, Taeyong was already feeling a hundered times better. Plus Jaehyun seemed like he was naturally good at taking care of people, stupid Johnny and Ten, misleading him into think Jaehyun was a cold person.

As soon as the thought of his two friends crossed his mind, his mood went plummeting down again. He was embarassed, not only had he revealed his secret crush in front of Johnny, he had also potentially hurt his bestest friend and their relationship, and to add to that, he had become a burden to Hansol, and Taeil. He was a burden to Jaehyun since day one as it is, and the list only seemed to be getting longer the longer he stayed here. He really wanted to just disappear, suddenly regretting moving away from home. Maybe he should just pack up and go back home.

But then he dares to tip his head back a bit, getting a good look at the sleeping boy's face. He didn't thank Jaehyun, nor did he ever say sorry properly. Yet Jaehyun was here, taking care of him when he was upset. Heck, even through his tears Taeyong could tell that Jaehyun had been running around. He had been panting and his shirt was sweaty, when he hugged him.

Jaehyun's out looking for you.

He remembers Taeil mentioning. But, to his surprise, instead of guilt, a new feeling, something rather foreign to him, makes an appearance. But he likes it. It's making him want to giggle, and hide his face in Jaehyun's soft and firm chest, and Taeyong would've done exactly that if he really didn't want to wake up the boy.

Besides, when else am I going to get to stare at him so openly?

That morning Taeyong takes a decision.  He won't run, at least not from Jaehyun anymore. He'd been thinking about it since he received that folded piece of paper yesterday, which was now safely tucked between the pages of Taeyong's favorite Harry Potter book (it's Prisoner of Azkaban, if anyone wants to know).

Plus, Jaehyun was right. He'd been running too much already.

Even though he had done the stupidest thing he could ever have done yeaterday, he also knew that was the consequence of not being open from the very start. Gosh, he really just wanted to hug his mom right now. She always knew what to do. She would always help him, he knew it.   SHe would hand him a hot chocolate, and gently weave her hands through Taeyong's black hair as he told her what he had done, then she would smile and tell him it was going to be alright soon. And it always did.

His mother had always been his pillar.

There hadn't too much his mother had had to give him a sitting down lecture after dinner, about, except for that one time years ago. Taeyong, being Taeyong, that is, clumsy and curious idiot, had gone and broken his mom's foundation while he was playing around with her make bag. (And before you judge, Taeyong was just curious, ok!)

 So, as is obvious, he broke it, tried to clean up, but failed massively and then locked himself up in the closet under the stairs.

He didn't get into trouble for breaking the thing though, in fact he didn't get into trouble at all. Instead when he cam e out again, he had been greeted by a teary-faced mother, followed by his ashen and sweaty father.

Taeyong had fallen asleep inside the closet, and only realised, when he woke up feeling thirsty that the lock of the closet was kind of rusted and he couldn't open it. So he panicked and started banging the door. That's when someone opened the door, it was one of the neighborhood girls, and he was confused because of her presence, so he ran out calling his mother, and he was greeted by a roomful of people looking shocked.

Thats when he realised, as he was sleeping, he never heard his mother calling for him, and they thought he had run away for some reason. Or even gotten kidnapped. Taeyong had never seen his father cry before that, and he only let his parents pull him into a hug as the on lookers vacated the house to give the family some privacy.

Don't run, and don't hide. Never. You may do many things wrong in life, accept it and learn to face it ok? Taeyongie Just promise mommy you'll never run and hide like you did today. Face your problems.

Back then he had promised, but he didn't give it much thought after that. His life had been a whirlwind since then. He lost his father, his mom married a woman, got a new brother, he met and fell for Johnny, graduated school, started college, met Jaehyun, and...still all this while he had been just running.

The confrontation with Jaehyun, was kind of similar to back then, where people were looking from him. Jaehyun was upset because he cared. Right? And truth be told, Taeyong was kind of guilty too. He had been avoiding the younger for every single thing, even though he had obviously been trying to make thing better. And he keeps pushing people away, he never himself makes an effort to keep them, or let them know how he feels. With that thought, he was hit with a wave of nostalgia, he realises a lot of things would've been different if he had only opened up. He was so immersed in his counterfactual thinking, that he didn't even realise that he had been staring at Jaehyun the whole while.

"You know, if you keep staring at me like that, I might just melt into a puddle." Jaehyun whispered.

Okay, so maybe he had over-reacted, but then you can't blame him for suddenly whelping and pushing Jaehyun off of, he realised only at that point, Hansol and Taeil's couch. The discovery only made him even more embarrassed because that means they had been sleeping pressed against each other like that and, though it was only as an act of comfort from Jaehyun's side, for Taeyong it meant something more. So anyways, Jaehyun's morning starts with him ending up on the floor with a thud, completely surprised, and making a mental note to never startle the other the next time. The blonde groaned, throwing a not-really accusatory glare at Taeyong, and rubbing the part of the back which had impacted with the floor. And Taeyong only hid himself by burying into the blanket with a small sorry.

"Huuuuh...did you say something?" He teased, inching closer with a smile. And Taeyong really wanted to just run, but held on. He had only just made a promise to himself, it was a bit too early to break it right? 

"Ye-yeah...I said sorry. For pu-shing you. I was...just really shocked. A-and....for that too" Jaehyun raised a single eyebrow, and tilted his head to the side as if confused. "F-for vo..miting on you...I just...I couldn't help it. I'm sorry Jaehyunnie."

He didn't mean to sound to timid, but he couldn't help it. He was so embarassed, and his legs, twisted together under the blanket, were shaking with nervousness. He really just wanted to turn away from Jaehyun's deep brown eyes and just hide. But then he held on. Mainly because he was fascinated by Jaehyun's wide dimpled smile, and the way in which the boy's eyes turned into crescents and Taeyong noted to himself how much he liked that smile. He liked it, he liked it a lot.

"You called me Jaehyunnie." The boy pointed out, but before Taeyong had time to get embarassed, because he realised that he had infact done that, Taeil saved him by calling for them from the kitchen. Thankful at having a reason to look away, Taeyong quickly averted his eyes towards the source, though unknown to him, Jaehyun's eyes didn't waver from his face.

"If you guys are done flirting on my couch, please feel free to join us for breakfast in the kitchen." Okay so maybe Taeil had just given Taeyong had just found a whole new reason to be embarrassed. 

He let the chuckling blonde pull him along to the bathroom to brush and was our faces. Taeyong ignored the eyes which were trained on him through the mirror, rather opting to focus on the kindness of his hosts, they left out so many things for the two of them to use. After they were done with their toilet business, Jaehyun held his hand tight, and the walked to the kitchen.

Taeil's smirk kind of made it difficult for him to actually focus.

He was just getting comfortable in the whole setting, and by comfortable he means less embarrassed, when Hansol walked in. Fresh from the shower and all ready already since he had early classes that day. He joined in easily with the flow of conversation and they continued with breakfast. laughing and talking about classes, and parties, and friends, carefully avoiding to mention Ten and Johnny.

Or alternatively Taeil, Jaehyun and Hansol were having a pleasant breakfast, laughing and talking about classes, and parties, and friends, carefully avoiding to mention Ten and Johnny, while Taeyong was fighting an internal war. For one he really didn't want to cause any more scene than he already had, and two, they others were having fun, and he would ruin it with his stupid OCD. But right now, Taeyong was feeling really sick. And from experience, he had a feeling it might've been because of Hansol's shampoo or soap. The smell was too fruity, and too sweet and he really, really wanted to throw up so bad. 

"Hey you okay?" Jaehyun asked. And only then did he noticed that the rest of the table had quietened down and were looking at him, and he unconsciously was leaning on Jaehyun's shoulder. An idea struck him, it was strange, and infinitely more embarrassing, but wasn't in his right mind right then (excuses of course) and so started his act. He shook his head and buried his nose into Jaehyun's neck. And from how the whole room was quiet, he could tell he's going to regret this, but as Jaehyun's smell entered his system, he couldn't really bring himself to care. The musky, yet somehow tangy yet sweet, smell soothed him. Effectively making his nausea over Hansol's damn stupid product more controllable.  

"I'm feeling kind of dizzy." He lied, of course he had to, he could say 'So, yeah Hansol's something smells disgusting, and I thought I should smell your sweaty body odour, because I love it, and it makes me feel good' no, he might've decided not to run, be isn't going to start embarrassing himself more than he could help.

"Let's go home fast, then you go to bed. You don't have class today right?" Jaehyun protectively wrapped an arm around his waist. Someone sniggered and Taeyong was too far gone to really check. All was well until Hansol decided to be ultra caring and came closer to the unaware Taeyong, trying to check his temperature.

The three of the them were left shocked when Taeyong shot up, not even a few seconds after declaring that he was sick, clutching a hand over his mouth and frantically running to their bathroom, emptying his guts out.

Jaehyun smiled, slowly realising what had happened. He even chuckled as he got up to check on his flatmate.

"Hansol hyung, I think you might want to change your deo soon. Or better, stop using them at all." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last one!!


	8. Say you're Sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So much more drama

Contrary to popular belief, Taeyong is not a prude. 

He's actually very much, umm...comfortable in his own body, and is totally understanding when others do stuff to their bodies, like tattoo or piercing. He even held Ten's hand when the boy got his first stud, though when it was his turn he ran off with Johnny at his heel, so Ten had to get a second stud, because Johnny had already paid for two, and there was a no return policy. But Ten liked it, and so Taeyong never understood why he brought it up every time there was a family dinner, and his mother invited him along too because the more the merrier and since Ten was at his house anyways.

Anyways, that's not what bought this red face of his on.

It was just that Jung Jaehyun was out and about, topless and frolicking in the kitchen, while Taeyong was already distressed, because he hadn't heard from neither Ten or Johnny, and he was getting nervous and scared, and it took his all to not breakdown every time he smelt Jaehyun's scent. It was because of all that frustration, and Taeyong's own guilt at ogling at the boy, that he ended up marching into Jaehyun's room, which smelt heavenly if anyone wants to know, and opened his cupboard, shrieked at the mess and threw the first piece of clothing he got his hands on at the boy, who had ended up following him all confused.

Of course that made Jaehyun smirk, and a cocky 'I thought you liked seeing me topless' followed, but Taeyong, already pretty embarrassed, just pulled out all of Jaehyun's clothes on the floor and sat beside it folding each article. Jaehyun tried to help, but he was just making things worse, mixing up all the blues and the whites. In the end he got thrown out of his own room and Taeyong shut and locked the door to prevent that troublesome kind from entering.

Well, Jaehyun wasn't really troublesome, but Taeyong found it hard to concentrate when he was around. Also Jaehyun's new shampoo stinks, and was messing with the aroma of the room. So the boy just had to go.

'You've become bolder.' The thought suddenly struck him as he found himself sniffing at Jaehyun's shirt.

Ten would've been so proud right now. He would actually even buy him his favorite ice cream because of him trying to be himself for once. The usual him would've just walking into his room and shut himself inside in this situation.

But Ten wouldn't even know now. They aren't even on good terms anymore, and Taeyong doubts Ten would ever forgive him for what he did. His heart really ached every time he thought about what he had done. If only he had kept his mouth shut, if only he had left things as it was. Ten was only teasing him, there wasn't any malicious intent there. They were friends after all, but Taeyong had to be doubtful. 

His suspicion cost him is friend, and he's not even sure he was right to think in that way. No, he knows he wasn't right to ever have thought about Ten in that light. No matter what, Ten would never hurt Taeyong the way Taeyong had done. Johnny probably hates him now too.

Taeyong had done nothing but ruin their friendship.

"I'm sorry." he whispered, knowing well enough that no one would hear him. But he also knew he didn't have the guts yet to go stand in front of his friend and beg for forgiveness. But he will, soon.

Tears welled up in his eyes and as the tears fell he caught them with one of Jaehyun's shirt. Feeling a more regretful as he heard the TV playing outside. But that didn't stop his tears. He buried his face into the shirt, taking in the smell, but it did little, the guilt was eating him up all over again. He started sobbing louder, and he heard the volume of the TV going down, he heard hurried footsteps, he heard the attempt at opening the door. He also heard the sigh that followed. Then he the heard Jaehyun walk away. And he cried harder, because for a second he though that maybe Jaehyun had had enough too.

"Hyung...wanna go out for a walk? Lets go eat tteobokki!! I really want it!" Taeyong got up, letting out a small sigh of relief, as he opened the door and nodded while trying to wipe his tears. Jaehyun smiled back. "Don't hurt too much ok? It'll all go back to the way it was before."  Taeyong nodded again, wanting to believe his words. "Lets go." He handed Taeyong his jacket, which he knew he blonde would've had taken from his cupboard, and he couldn't find it in him to be annoyed at that. He usually didn't like people in his room. Jaehyun was the exception, the boy just barged in regardless.

They walked in silence.

More like Taeyong was silent. But that's okay, because Jaehyun was talking enough for both of them and the whole universe combined. He kept going on about his course, hie professors, his classmates, his house, his parents, his younger sister, his pet poodle and cat, his favorite band, and then his favorite food...

"Tteobokki!!" 

Taeyong had never seen someone so excited over food, except maybe Ten when Johnny first made them dinner, but then even the Thai wouldn't be able to make food look as tasty as Jaehyun did. With every bite the boy took, he would close is eyes, and a small smile would make an appearance, and Taeyong would forget that his own bite was waiting for him.

He chuckled and took a bite of his food and decided he had stared at boy enough for the day. 

They were sitting a bit away from the stall, since Taeyong couldn't handle all the smell. Jaehyun had actually wanted to take it back to their dorm, but Taeyong could tell from the very obvious signs that the boy wanted to eat it so bad, so he swallowed his 'yes' and instead asked Jaehyun if they could eat it there itself. He was glad he did, Jaehyun's excitement sky rocketed, and he himself was thankful. The boy taken his mind off his own guilt for awhile.

"Hmm...hyung...I know...I haven't said this...but I'm sorry."

"For what Jaehyunie?" Taeyong let the name slip again, and before he could feel embarrassed, Jaehyun grinned at him, but it wasn't the usual bright one. 

"For what I said that time. About...that. I didn't mean it like that. I was just...I was just a bit scared...jealous...and a bit irritated.... Not at you...at myself, because I couldn't find you and because...I did something so stupid Tae...I'm so sorry."

"Something stupid as in dry humping someone against a tree outside the courts?" Taeyong asked, enjoying how each word of his took Jaehyun into further panic. 

"Ho-Wh----why do you know that?" Taeyong shrugged, the mention of that day and incident bringing back images in his mind, which he was sure he wanted to forget. He hated it, he hated it so much, he could almost feel himself ready to burst out at the younger and call him out on his behavior. But he honestly didn't want to talk about that time anymore. He was out with Jaehyun to feel better and to forget about it. 

"It's ok Jaehyun, I'm not mad about that anymore...but tell me this, why were you jealous? Why would you be jealous?" If Jaehyun seemed embarrassed before, this was a whole new level. It was amusing even. The usually calm and composed and ever so cool basketball player and the campus prince, JJ was sputtering about, as if he had lost the ability to speak. And then, as if talking to a child, which was funny because between them Taeyong was sure he was older, Jaehyun explained why.

"Well I am human...and humans get jealous when someone they like, likes someone else. And when he gets upset because of someone else. And when he smiles his widest smile at someone else. It hurts, but then you can't help but be in love hyung. You know the feeling right?"

"You like someone who likes someone else?"

Okay, now Taeyong won't lie it stung, but at the same time, his face was heating up because Jaehyun was looking at him all weird while he nodded, but the smile still didn't reach his eyes. In fact Jaehyun looked kind of sad, and Taeyong wanted nothing more than to take all the sadness away. If he knew who this idiot who wasn't in love with Jaehyun was, he'd have a nice talking with the, Jaehyun was an angel and he deserved to be loved back, ten times more than anyone else in the world.

At the same time he was kind of glad that Jaehyun was in love with someone who was already taken. It made him feel worse, but he couldn't help it, and he really did't understand it either.

He was half way through lifting his hand cupping that chubby face and tell him to smile, but his phone started ringing and the moment was gone.

It was an unknown number, and usually Taeyong wouldn't pick it up, but the situation was going in a direction which wasn't really sitting well with him.

Hel-"

"Hyung!" a tearful and unsure voice called out from the other end, and Taeyong immediately knew who it was.

"Mark!! Wh-"

"Hyung...I'm...can you come..p-pick me up? I'm kind of lost."

Taeyong and Jaehyun rushed to the spot to find Mark crouched next to a stuffed up bag, he was crying into his palms. The younger ran into Taeyong's arms when the elder called out to him. Jaehyun went ahead and picked up the bag and the three made their way back to the dorm. It was very quite, even with Jaehyun trying to lighten the atmosphere up a bit, but he stopped talking after a while. Mark was clinging onto him as if his life depended on it and his tears hadn't stopped.

As soon as the reached home, the two let Mark take a shower and Jaehyun went to prepare something for the kid to eat while Taeyong started to rearrange his room a bit to accommodate the younger. He had just gotten off a call with his mom who told him the boy had just run off with his bag, they both were pretty shocked that he had traveled that far to Taeyong, maybe he missed you his mom mused, completely believing her words, she even sounded happy about it. Taeyong had only hummed in answer, well aware that there was more to that.

When Mark came out, he mumbled a sorry as he got dressed, the boy had his head down the whole time and Taeyong's heart was pricking. Mark was a lot of things, he hadn't been the epitome of nice to him, but then it was an understandable circumstance. He was a kid too, so Taeyong was willing to cut him some slack for now. He pulled the boy out the room, and sat him down at the table, taking a seat in front of him. Jaehyun served the instant noodles in front of him and opted to lean against the wall as they watched the kid eat.

"Isn't that your boyfriend hyung?"

"NO!" Taeyong responded a bit louder and harsher than he intended, but hey, he was kind of taken back by the question.

"Then why does he look like a kicked puppy?" 

"He does look like a puppy right?"

"Yeah...like that ugly one my grandma used to own. He died last week by the way."

"O-"

"Hey! I'm here!! And I'll have you know that many people think I'm super handsome ok!" Jaehyun huffed, seeming offended by a 16 year old's words. Taeyong somehow found that adorable.

"Mustbeblindpeoplearoundyoualot."

"I made you food!!"

"And I am thankful!"

"Gosh stop it you two!!" Taeyong snapped. Jaehyun was Mark were now glaring at each other and even though it was kind of funny, he really wanted to know the reason behind Mark's red eyes. they boy had practically run away from home and come to him in tears, something had to have gone wrong. "Mark why are you here?"

"I missed--"

"Save it...now tell me."

"It's just that...it's...kind of weird...and complicated....and I'm not comfortable with sharing it in front of a dog."

"This kid!! Did you just call me a dog? You wanna fight kid?" 

"Bring it on!!"

In the end Taeyong didn't get his answer, instead he was left as the two left the flat in a hurry. Apparently deciding the 'winner' over a game of basketball was the way men dealt with it. Only Taeyong thought it was rather childish to be even aruguing over...whatever they were arguing over anyways.

Well at least they weren't fighting...that's a good sign right?

His step brother and roommate were getting along, so alls well that doesn't end in a war, as Johnny would put it.

Taeyong smiled bitterly, he missed those two so much already, he really should work on his Please forgive me I'm an idiot speech for Ten and I'm sorry I don't have a brain to mouth filter speech for Johnny. He shouldn't have to, according to Yeri, she was all up in arms and ready to fight Ten when he explained to her his problem.

Oh yes, he contacted her, and told her he was gay. She apparently knew, but tried her luck anyway.  
'Besides, you already have Jaehyun, so I knew you'd reject me 100%'.   
Taeyong had wanted to refute her, since no, he did not have have Jaehyun. They were just friends. He doesn't get everyones obsession with pairing the two, like do they really give off that vibe? Her reply was the same:   
'Well he ran after you half naked, you looked panicked, put two and two together oppa! It looked as if he tried to go further, and you didn't want it, and you ran off embarrassed and he chased you. At least that what your shippers think.'

Yeah, apparently there were more people as delusional as Ten in the world.

He sighed, kind of tired after the rather uneventful day. Just the fact that he hadn't heard Ten's boisterous laughter in his ear the whole was enough to pull him down. Plus, he wasn't even sleepy yet.

Just as Taeyong's ass was about to hit the couch, his hand mid-air, directing the remote towards the TV, the door bell rang. He got up, a bit confused, but went to open the door anyway.

"J-Johnny?"

There he was, one of the two people h had been dying to see the whole day. He really couldn't help it. His eyes filled up and he just launched into the boy arms. Johnny had been expecting it,because his arms were already wide open. He pulled Taeyong into a tight hug pushed the two inside, nudging the door closed with his legs.

Taeyong didn't turn into a mess of tears, he had exhausted himself on Jaehyun's shirt already, but there were a few wet spots on Johnny's green shirt. But the taller didn't mind, in fact he seemed rather offended that Taeyong wasn't a sputtering mess.

"I thought you'd miss me." He teased, nudging Taeyong's ribs playfully as the two settled beside each other on the couch. 

"Of course I did you dumbass, I just...I guess I don't want to cry anymore." 

"That's good. Don't cry or hurt alone anymore Taeyong-ah...it hurts me too." Johnny answered sincerely and seriously enough to make Taeyong look at him in question.

Johnny looked just tired. He had the usual bright voice, and his smile was as warm as it could get. On the surface you could tell nothing was wrong, but Taeyong knew Johnny. He had spent days looking at him, so he knew from practice to detect the tightness around his smile, and the specks of sadness in his eyes.

Johnny was sad.

"Are you ok Johnny?" Taeyong asked, turning to face the boy completely. Johnny only chuckled while shaking his head and turned to face him too, bringing his legs up and crossing it under him in the process.

"There's no hiding from you is there? You know me too well yongie." 

Taeyong's face warmed up at the nick name. It was something Johnny used to call him back when they first met, but then opted for Tae because it annoyed him less, though secretly, Taeyong thought that it was best nickname anyone gave him ever. Period. 

"We need to talk."

"Yes."

"Why didn't you say something Yong-ah? All these years I-we had been hurting you and you never once did anything...not even a hint." Johnny looked genuinely troubled, and that made Taeyong infinitely more guilty. Johnny didn't deserve all this.

"I'm honestly fine now Johnny. Really! It hurt at the beginning, but you and Ten looked so happy-"

"Were you happy?"

"I was...I was happy that you guys were. Besides Ten is way better tha-"

"Don't you dare say that. Ever. You are pretty awesome too. I would've punched Ten in the face if I had been in your position. Way before three years."

"It's ok. He probably didn't know that I...you know...."

"No I don't..." Johnny teased, "What are you talking about Taeyong...what do I know?"

Taeyong, being Taeyong, took bait and ended up saying it out loud. Only causing the other to burst out laughing. To an extent that he fell onto the floor, his eyes tearing up at the innocent confession.

"Gosh Yongie, if you had confessed to me like that there is no way I would refuse you. That was so adorable!! No wonder Jaehyun just gives in everytime!!" 

As if some great joke had happened, Johnny began laughing again, and Taeyong sat dumbfounded on the couch, still in the same position as before. Wondering just why people kept mentioning Jaehyun and him as if they were together.

"Jaehyun? He...says no...a lot to me too..." even as the words left his mouth, his mind backtracked, and honestly, there wasn't a single day where Jaehyun had really said no, or refused him anything. Even yesterday, he had willingly let Taeyong -someone he had known only for just above a month- leap into his arms, cry and drench his t-shirt with tears, and even slept with him. 

But then that's probably just because Jaehyun is just a nice guy in general. He pointed that out, which only caused more laughter from Johnny. But as exasperated as Taeyong was, at not getting the joke, he was kind of glad to see Johnny relaxed.

As if on cue, the door opened and his two boys walked in. All sweaty, smiley and with arms on each others shoulders as if they hadn't just been fighting before they left. The two were super immersed in their conversation, about only they know what, and hadn't noticed the two others yet. But since Jaehyun smelling as heavenly as he was, Taeyong couldn't help take a deep breath. Which of course Johnny noticed.

"Like what you smell huh Yongie?" The smirk was too telling, Johnny had obviously guessed just what smell Taeyong was 'smelling' right then. He knew Taeyong just as well too. Damn, he was doomed.

They caught the other boys' attention when Johnny suddenly stood up, pointing at Taeyong with wide eyes, his face turned to a shocked Jaehyun.

"Joh-"

"Jaehyun...Taeyong likes the way you smell-" 

Before he could get the words out though, Mark ran into him. Startling both Johnny and Taeyong. 

"JOHNNY BRO!! I MISSED YOU!!" 

There was utter silence for a second, and Taeyong swore he had never seen Johnny look more comical. The boy had his hand up in the air as if someone had him at gun point. His eyes were wide open, just like his mouth and Taeyong had a strong suspicion that the taller was not even breathing right then. 

Laughing, he tried to get his 17 year old brother off, and he succeeded. Only the did Johnny relax.

"What is this kid doing here?"

"I missed you guys!"

"Save your lies for yongie's mom, she's the only one who's going to buy them."

"Wah...hyung...you called him yongie, like the old days...!" Mark shrugged, his tone taking a slightly sacrcastic turn as he brushed past the boy and made his way to the kitchen, pulling out a bottle of water and chugging it down. Well aware that Johnny is going to follow him any second. 

"Don't change the subject young man." Johnny followed.

It was a familiar feeling, and Taeyong, for a whole hour almost forgot that there had been any issues. The flat got so noisy as Johnny tried to get Mark to tell him why he was there, and Mark tried to engage in a talk about basketball, while Jaehyun, was oddly just silent.

"Jaehyun?"

"Ye-yeah?" 

That was odd. Jaehyun just acted as if Taeyong's call had taken him away from some deep thought. His eyes were kind of not meeting him and slowly, the boys cheeks were tinting red. Taeyong, out of pure curiosity and not greed for the scent, walked up to the boy, trying to get a closer look at his face and sure enough, Jaehyun was red. In fact, his face was getting redder as he got closer.

"Taeyong...don't come so close!" He whispered, as if their interaction was a secret. As if he didn't want anyone but Taeyong to hear him right then. The though did something to his gut, something he didn't exactly hate.

"Why not?" He whispered back, stepping even closer, daring to look right into the boy eyes.

"I-I might not be...normal right now."" he answered. There was something in his eyes. Something that was pulling Taeyong closer. The voices from the kitchen started to fade away, and the only thing he could sense was Jaehyun. Jaehyun's scent hit his nostrils and involuntarily he breathed it in. Jaehyun obviously noticed this, because his eyes became darker.

And they pulled Taeyong closer.

"Did you...do you like...it?""

"What?"

"My...the way I smell?"

Could turn back time? Taeyong remembers vaguely, an afternoon physics class back in school in which his teacher mentioned Einstein believed you could go back in time if you travel faster than light. So how does Taeyong get himself to fly faster than light?

"Okay, sorry to intrude on your little private whatever session over there." Johnny started, leaning against a wall with a knowing smirk on his face. Taeyong was startled, and he turned his body around, his back facing Jaehyun, but otherwise he didn't move away, probably because of the light pressure of Jaehyun's hand on his waist. It wasn't too imposing, but it was enough. "Okay, now that I have you attention...."

Taeyong could hear Jaehyun's breath in his ear, and not to mention the way he smelled. The proximity and the potency was too high, and Taeyong was getting drunk in it.

"...okay, now you guys are kind of scarring me. Let's say Mark and I take your room Jae? You don't mind sharing with Taeyong right?" 

"Wait...Why are we sh...you are staying here?" Taeyong asked, pulling out from the spell Jaehyun was putting on him. Ignoring the increased pressure of his hands on his waist, Taeyong decided to focus instead on Johnny's stance. His eyes wandered to the bag beside the couch, which he had failed to notice before. 

The boy was trying hard to seem, confident, but obviously it was not working. At least Taeyong could tell.

"Ten and I broke up."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ended up writing too much..lol


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaehyun helps Taeyong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not what you are thinking!!

 

_"Ten and I broke up."_

 

Taeyong didn't really get much time to process what Johnny had just said, before he found himself being pulled into his own room by Jaehyun.

"Why'd you do that?? I wanted to ask him more...to know what had happened...why would they break up Jae?" irritation seeping out through his voice at the blonde's behaviour.

 _You know exactly why they broke up_  his sub-conscious quipped up, and it wasn't really helping Taeyong right now _It's not Jaehyun who you should be annoyed at, but at yourself_. They couldn't have broken up because of his confession right? _You're a failure as a friend._  They were way stronger than that. It's ridiculous to think that Johnny would break up with Ten only just because he found out Taeyong liked him all those years ago. 

Like, Taeyong doesn't even feel the same way anymore.

He isn't exactly sure since when, but his heart doesn't race the same way when he sees Johnny as it used to before, he is happy to see him, and even just a day without talking to him doesn't feel right, but then it is the same he feels about Ten.

He sees Johnny only as a friend now, his best friend. Nothing more, nothing less.

He tried to pull his hand away from the vice like grip Jaehyun had on his wrist. The boy still wasn't looking at his face, instead opting to look at the floor. It irritated him even more when instead of loosening his grip, Jaehyun only tightened it. 

"Don't go to him..." he whispered. It had a tinge of desperation in it, enough of it to make the unusually obtuse Taeyong notice and stop struggling.

"Can you look at me Jaehyunnie?" He whispered. At the back of his mind, he was left wondering why they were whispering in situations where there was really no one else who could overhear them. It made it seem so much more, secretive; so much more private and somewhere in his mind, alarms were ringing. A silent warning was the tip of his sub-conscious, threatening to spill, but not quite there yet.

It was as if he knew exactly what was going on, but didn't at the same time. It frustrated him. Too much was happening, too much and it was becoming blatantly obvious that Taeyong needed to start paying attention to people around him more. 

Jaehyun lifted his head, looking at Taeyong through his lashes. He really looked like a kicked puppy, and for a split second Taeyong felt like reaching out and pulling those chubby cheeks and kissing Jaehyun's frown away.

 _What was wrong with him?_  He rarely ever felt so affectionate towards another person, but with Jaehyun, he wanted to pour all his attention and everything on to the boy. Jaehyun deserved only the best.

"What's wrong?"

"You...you can't go back to Johnny...he's single and...you...you still like him right?"

"I...I don't like him that way anymore Jaehyun. If that's what you mean." If there wasn't an ocean of doubt in Jaehyun's eyes, Taeyong would've laughed that question off, because wasn't it obvious that he didn't like Johnny that way anymore? "I won't deny, I did like him quite a lot at one point, so much that I'd even go as far as to call him my first love, but Jaehyun that was so long ago. I...I really, am completely over him, really. I promise. There is no  _like_  like feelings involved here any more."

Taeyong didn't really understand why Jaehyun, the same guy who figured out that he had a crush on Johnny, the ever observant psychologist, couldn't even tell that Taeyong didn't feel the same way about his friend anymore. He doesn't like Johnny the same way that he likes--

_That he likes Jaehyun...He likes Jaehyun. He likes...Jae...hyun...a lot._

The realisation hit him like a truck, and he almost staggered and fell to the floor because of how dizzy it made him. And he would've fallen to the floor if Jaehyun's hands hadn't steadied him in time. 

The boy pulled Taeyong flush against his body, effectively knocking the air out of his body. His heart beat was so erratic, Taeyong was sure he'd break the ECG machine if he had been hooked to one right now.

Thank God he isn't. Maybe the universe isn't that against him yet.

He could actually picture Ten giving him a standing ovation, obviously a sarcastic one, at his epiphany. He'd then pull along an embarrassed Johnny to interrogate a clueless Jaehyun, and judge his capacity to look after _their pseudo son_ , because, Ten had declared himself and Johnny's substitute parents for anytime he was away from his actual parents, and he took his job very serisouly. It was hilarious, and ridiculous at the time, and Johnny had just went along with the deal because he knew refusing Ten would land him in trouble (read: no sex forever) but now, he misses it. And then it hits him that his _pseudo-parents_ just got divorced and that the cute and heartwarming scenario he conjured up would never take place, he snapped.

He couldn't take it anymore, the two opposite feelings were overwhelming and he started to cry out of pure frustration.

"Hey! Don't cry, I didn't mean...to make feel pressured, or bad! Tae-"

"No...it's not that...I just miss them so much Jaehyun!!" Taeyong found his face against the crook of Jaehyun's neck and the younger stilled for a beat before rubbing his back gently, telling him that he was there for him. "It's my fault right? They broke up because of me right? I'm so bad Jaehyun-ah!!" _I'm so sorry that an idiot like me fell for you_.

"No...No it's not your fault ok?" Jaehyun pulled way, and looked right into his eyes. "Them breaking up is their decision, it that nothing to do with you. Problems arise  in every relationship hyung, they people in it can either give up or can hold on and fight through it."

"But Johnny and Ten were a strong couple...they loved each other. It's because I ran my mouth-"

"Listen to me carefully hyung. What happened isn't your fault ok? They are both old enough to take their own decisions. Besides, you don't even really know why they broke up either. Tomorrow, when you are feeling better, and Johnny is too, you guys should sit down and talk. For now, can we just go to bed?"

"We didn't have dinner though." Taeyong pointed out, his voice all husky and weird because he had been crying.

"Oh...right..."

Taeyong chuckled through his tears as Jaehyun ran out in a hurry, shouting for Johnny, and reminding the other two, that in their hurry to avoid confrontation they had forgotten dinner.

He stood at the door and chuckled even more when he heard Mark quip back at Jaehyun who only took bait and another argument ensued, which thankfully came to a stop when Johnny walked in with a pan in his right hand, and left hand on his waist, looking as threatening as a hamster in Taeyong's opinion,  especially with that yellow apron on him, which he didn't know they owned. But obviously he was the only on who thought so, since the two idiots shut up and settled for just glaring at each other. 

The boy then turned to Taeyong and threw him a wink before resuming his process of making dinner, ignoring the grumbling pair of kids.

Taeyong felt a tiny bit better.

And then Jaehyun looked at him and smiled, and Taeyong smiled back. Both opting to ignore the gaggings sound from Mark. 

Taeyong definitely felt a lot better,

After dinner, just as Taeyong was done wiping the counters clean, a wet haired Mark walked in, filling the kitchen with the smell of Jasmines, and Taeyong found it cute that Mark used the same shampoo as his mother. The boy was twisting the tips of his shirt between his fingers, and Taeyong recognised that as a nervous habit the younger had since he was a kid. He smiled fondly. 

"You want some hot chocolate Mark?"

Not waiting for an answer, he fixed up two glasses, and the two sat at the table, much like they had during dinner, only this time it was just the two of them, and no distractions. Since Jaehyun was showering and Johnny was busy playing games on his laptop. 

"Hey...where's my...oh...don't mind me..." Ok so maybe Johnny wasn't busy playing games anymore, but he read the serious atmosphere as soon as he entered the kitchen and then left in a hurry after grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and throwing the two brothers a silent fighting. 

"So, are you finally going to tell me what happened?"

"Hyung...the thing is..." Mark sighed, he sipped his drink once more and wet his lips, another nervous habit of his that Taeyong had noticed over the years. Taeyong and Mark might not have been the closest of brothers in reality, but they pretended to get along pretty well for the sake of Wendy and his mom. So there had been tons of instances when Taeyong had had to sit next to his little brother, even if it was against his will. So naturally he did know him quite a bit. He also knew, that despite what everyone thought, Mark was really just a scared little kid.

Which is why he forgave all those homophobic remarks that fell from the kid's mouth, almost as soon as they fell. It's always a shock to know that you mom is married to a woman, Taeyong went through that himself, but being gay himself, it had been  easier for him to accept the change. Plus, Wendy insisted that he call her dad, to make him feel better, and his mom did the same with Mark, though in the end both of them ended up calling Wendy dad, because she was just more, dad-like?

"Go on. I'm not going to judge." He assured the kid, giving that little push.

"I know hyung, you'd never do that to me...or anyone. You're literally the best brother I could ask for"

"Woah!! Where is all that coming from?"

"From my heart?" Mark smiled a bit, and Taeyog burst out laughing. "Seriously though hyung, thank you. For everything. And sorry that I was so...bad and unappreciative and rude, and basically the definition of the worst brother in the world."

"You were a kid, you still are. Stop apologizing for things I don't hold against you."

"You should. You shouldn't even have picked me up when I called, or even let me stay for a while."

"I am not going to turn you away in a city which is new even for me. Leave all that and tell me why you are here."

Mark sighed again. Taeyong didn't get it, while he was feeling really light inside, like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulder, he was dreading Mark's real reason. The boy could've wait for the spring break, when Taeyong would be back home, for this apology. His mind started wandering, were there issues between their parents? Is that it? Were they fighting, and that scared Mark and he ran away? Maybe that was it. 

Just as his mind started to make even worse conclusions, Mark threw certain words out of his mouth. 

"DonghyuckkissedmeandIkissedhimbackandnowI'msoconfusedhyung!"

Of course it had sounded like gibberish to Taeyong. But he was rather startled by the suddenness with which Mark spit the words out and then proceeded to hide his face in his palms, probably in embarrassment. So he thought maybe it was his lack of comprehension that led to him not understanding what the younger.

"Umm, Mark, I'm sorry, but I didn't quiet catch any of that. Can you say it again please?" He felt bad at doing this, but he was dying to know, and Mark's reaction was just making him more curious. There was a small voice in his brain which repeated the age old warning  _Curiosity killed the cat_ , but then Taeyong ignored it, because curious cats deserved it, his mind flashing to white devil he had the pleasure (not) of meeting back in the library. Stupid cats.

Anyways, back to the matter at hand.

Mark rubbed his face, still hiding it from Taeyong as he repeated his earlier words in as low a voice he could use, and as fast as he could without mushing his words together.

"I...Donghyuck and I kissed, and I liked it."

"Oh."

He remembered Donghyuck, he was the kid from the house right in front of theirs. Though he was almost a year younger to Mark, they were in the same class, because the kid was smart as hell, in fact he would've skipped a few more grades if the boy hadn't been adamant in graduating together with Mark. That was a teller enough for Ten, Johnny and Taeyong that the kid had the hots for his younger brother, and the added puppy flirting had only been a confirmation, but they never called anyone out because as Ten put it,  _You should never come in the way of puppy love_. 

"How did...uh..." he started, not exactly sure what he wanted to ask in the first place. This was super awkward for Taeyong, since his brother was here, asking him for advice in a field which he had had more experience than him. Hell, that actually hurt his pride a bit.

"I don't even know, like one second we were playing that game Minho hyung sent from USA, and the next thing I know, he is on top of me and grinding his hips against mine...and you get it...we kind of went far..."

"Oh."

Now this definitely was beyond Taeyong's experience, his first kiss hadn't even happened yet (though if you as Ten and Johnny they'd tell you the story about how Taeyongs fist kiss was stolen by his pet dog Ruby, buy he would never admit that.) let alone...all that. He thanked God that Mark was hiding behind his palm. Effectively hiding his own face, and not seeing Taeyong's at the same time, because he swears his cheeks hadn't felt so hot ever. This beat that time when he walked in on Jaehyun and his glorious upper body.

"Hyung what do I do? I can't even face him...and I'm so confused. Like before this I had never thought about Hyuckie like that. But then when our lips met, it was just so good, and so perfect...like hyung! You know the feeling right? I haven't felt like that ever. I mean I have experimented with girls before, but with Hyuck it was just so much more exciting?...hyung does this mean I...am I gay?"

Yet again, Taeyong found himself in an uncomfortable position. He hadn't experienced any of those things Mark just described. Sure he had had a girl friend back in school, but then every time she tried to kiss him he ran off, and the feeling of her breasts against his body when they hugged, he absolutely hated it. He found out he was gay when he had a wet dream about one of his seniors in school. A male senior. 

"Mark..." So while he sat there, just about to confess to his brother that he had come to the wrong person for advice, he noticed a white board...no that was a sketch pad...floating right outside the kitchen door. With some words written on it.

 _Kissing a boy does not make you gay_. It started.

"...Kissing a boy doesn't make you gay", Taeyong found himself repeating, unable to keep the fond smile off of his face as a hand gave him a thumbs up before, flipping the page. "...you're just 17, you're brain is probably experimenting with possibilities." the rest he knew what to say, "Don't overthink things ok? Everyone goes through what you did at some point, especially since you are surrounded by homosexual people, you are more open to that possibility that is all. You don't need label yourself too soon kiddo."

Taeyong smiled as he received another thumbs up. He shook his head trying to take the smile off of his face and stop his heart from going bonkers, and focus on Mark.

"Did you experiment with Ten hyung then?" Mark asked. The question was seemingly innocent, and the boy was genuinely asking Taeyong, but as soon as the question left his mouth, a pair of almond shaped eyes and wet blonde hair appeared above the sketch pad. They eyes were narrowed at him as if in accusation, and Taeyong could tell that Jaehyun was probably pouting behind the screen.

"Maybe." He replied, though in truth, the answer is no. He and Ten had figured out their orientations all on their own, and even after they had, they both had been together for so long that times they saw each other as commodities rather than actual people. But hey, why should let an opportunity to tease Jaehyun go?

"Wow hyung! So all those times you spent locked in your rooms you guys were fucking?" Mark snapped up, looking amazed, but then whined because Taeyong hit his head, completely embarrassed.

"No we weren't 'fucking'!! mind your language kid!" 

"Puh-lease! Not you too!! Mom has this new language policy installed in the house, every swear word has a 50cent penalty. Its annoying because whenever Hyuck is around, we both get so engrossed... _in the game_..." Mark stressed seeing the teasing smile on Taeyong face, blissfully unaware of the annoyed young man outside listening on their conversation and probably killing Ten a 100 different ways in his mind already. "...we always end up losing out the ice-cream money to that penalty....hyung!!"

"And still you used a swear word!"

"Gosh I keep forgetting how you are such a mama's boy..." he grumbled, sipping the last of his drink.

"Mark!!"

The two brother chuckled at each other, and Mark urged his hyung to finish the rest of drink. Just as he was almost done the boy started fidgeting in his seat again. and Taeyong raised a brow in question.

"Hyung, can you give me a hug?" 

"Of course!"

Taeyong got up and walked up to, a really red, Mark, and the boy immediately buried his face into his hyung's stomach, saying a muffled thank you, and some other touching stuff that completely went over Taeyong head. Because all he could really see was, right at that moment, was Jaehyun casually leaning against the door frame with a smile which showcased his dimples, and effortlessly gained all of Taeyong's attention. There was that weird look in Jaehyun's eyes again, the same one he had noticed earlier that day, as they sat eating their tteobokki. The look that made Taeyong feel all warm and giddy inside. 

It was as if Jaehyun's eyes were leaking warmth and honey.

Taeyong mouthed silent thank you to the boy, who only smiled wider, his head slightly nudging towards their shared bedroom for the night and he walked off. It was a _I'll wait for you_ sign and as he left Taeyong couldn't help the widest grin ever on his face.

"So hyung, you sure you and Jaehyun aren't dating?" Mark asked, now looking right at Taeyong, holding a knowing smirk. His voice making the elder more conscious as he looked down at the younger with a frown, calling up on all his acting skills.

"N-no...of course not..."

"Not _yet_ you mean?" he teased again, standing up and collecting both of their glasses to keep into the sink. "It's cool though, he's great. Oh and thank him from my side for just now."

"Huh...?"

"You were too obvious hyung! Everyone and their unborn child knows that you and Ten-hyung would never even touch each other if you guys could help it. He was here wasn't he, you were trying to make him jealous right?"

"Wha...I...no?"

"It's fine hyung...you should go to him before he starts getting too lonely." Mark said, winking at him while making a quick beeline to his bed for the night, aka, Jaehyun's room.

When Taeyong did finally enter his own bedroom, he found Jaehyun already under the cover, flipping through one his books. He almost wanted to turn around and go exchange with Johnny, but then he also really wanted to stay with Jaehyun too.

"Hyung...how did it go?" Jaehyun asked him, when he noticed the boy enter the room, using his gentle  _I care about you so much_  voice that was twisting knots into Taeyong's intestines that he is sure was unhealthy. 

"He...he asked me to thank you." Taeyong pouted a bit, he was actually really kind of hurt that he wasn't able to help out the younger the one time he had reached out to him.

"Eeh? He figured it out...how?"

"I don't know..." he whined, not being to help it.

"Aww...hyung come here." Jaehyun put the book aside and opened his arms wide, a silent invitation for Taeyong. Who was Taeyong to refuse. He immediately dived in, his head hitting Jaehyun's chest in his haste, and the younger laughed despite the fact that it had to have hurt. "So eager for a hug...huh?" Taeyong didn't answer, only breathed in Jaehyun's scent, noticing immediately that Jaehyun didn't smell like any shampoo at all.

"You didn't use soap? Or shampoo?"

"You don't like those smell much do you? Besides, why would I use them when I found out that you like the way I smell naturally?" He could hear the smirk in Jaehyun's tone, and despite himself, he ended up whining and trying to bury his head deeper into Jaehyun's chest. The blonde held him closer. "Hey hyung...?"

"Hmm..."

"Did you and Ten really...you know?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you guys fool around?"

"What do you think?"

Jaehyun whined this time, and Taeyong had to break free laughing. As he got off of bed to go change into his pajamas,  Jaehyun kept whining and grumbling like a baby. About how cold the bed was, how cold it was in general, and how mean Taeyong was being by ignoring him.

He smiled as he applied lotion on his hands, getting comments from Jaehyun about finally discovering why his skin was so soft, which he ignored for the sake of heart. He smiled as he turned off the lights and settled onto his side of the bed, curling away from Jaehyun, but the immediately finding himself being spooned by the younger.  _I really do like him_. Taeyong thought as smiled through it all. If it had been anyone else, including Ten...especially Ten, Taeyong would've thrown him out by now. 

_"Well I am human...and humans get jealous when someone they like, likes someone else. And when he gets upset because of someone else. And when he smiles his widest smile at someone else. It hurts, but then you can't help but be in love hyung. You know the feeling right?"_

_"You like someone who likes someone else?"_

 

 

It's not that Taeyong had forgotten the blonde's confession from earlier that day. It was in fact the uncertainty that brought was the only thing stopping him from craning his neck just a bit and kissing those lips which he knew were just behind him, almost pressing into the base of his neck.

But Jaehyun is in love with someone already. It could be him, seeing that Jaehyun actually thought Taeyong was still in love with Johnny, thus fitting the citerion, or it could be either of his friends, or even someone he doesn't know. 

It could be anyone, and even though Taeyong heart was hurting, because this would be the second time he falls for someone who doesn't feel the same way about him, he would rather see Jaehyun be happy than him try to be happy for Taeyong's happiness.

Does that even make sense? He would never want to be the obstacle to anyone's happiness. If Jaehyun got the person he loved, he would be happy, and he knew the blonde would keep the other person happy too. But if Jaehyun finds out his feelings for him, knowing him, he would agree to date him, but that wouldn't make anyone happy. He would rather two people be happy than no one. So he decided to keep his feelings under wraps for the moment. Or at least until he gets a hint at least.

But as he felt the strong arms wrap around his waist; the slightly fast thuds against his back, and the warm breath against the side of his neck that Jaehyun had snuggled into, he really hoped it was him. So he pretended that he was _the one_  for the night. His own hands settled on top of Jaehyun's, caressing them, and he drifted of into a calm sleep in a while, completely missing the way Jaehyun's heart beats increased, and the small smile that graced his lips at his actions.

_Mom, I really really like this guy._

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol...sorry?


	10. More Than what meets the Eye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuff stuff and more stuff

 

 

 

 

It's Sunday morning and Taeyong is up and awake, busying around in the kitchen while the rest of the boys as fast asleep. He hasn't been surrounded by so much quietness in a while, and he appreciates it.

Plus, he is a man on a mission today. He had made up his mind, and nothing was going to stop him now. He's going to go have a proper talk with Ten and settle their issue once and for all, and maybe even play cupid and get Johnny and Ten back together again.

Also, he couldn't sleep anymore. 

Being next to Jaehyun was suffocating as it is, and even more so since he realized his own feelings. He was excited at first, Jaehyun was the only other person he has had feelings for, but as he drifted off into dream land insecurities started to creep up. Because even the layman can tell that Jaehyun is everyone's perfect dream. The prince charming 5year old conjure up in their minds with the hope of meeting them someday. He just made everything magical. Even just by breathing Jaehyun was the epitome of perfect.

They called him Prince JJ for a reason after all.

And Taeyong was in no way even an inch worthy of that much. 

He wasn't the only one with  _feelings_ for Jaehyun. There was a whole campus filled with students who'd be so much more worthy to stand next to him. 

Feeling Jaehyun's breath against the back of his neck, with the boys chest pressed behind him and his arms tucking him further into the blonde's body was scaring Taeyong. They weren't anything but roommates, and he would like to keep it that way.

_Oh please, you love it so much._

No lies, he hates his inner voice so much, but he hates these feelings he had for Jaehyun even more. He's just going to ruin another friendship. Break up another couple; Jaehyun and the boy he loves. And with every second he spent in Jaehyun's embrace he was feeling more nauseous. He had to leave.

So, like any other sane person, Taeyong was baking at 4 am in the morning. On a Sunday. His excuse was that Ten loved cookies he made, but lets be real, it was just an excuse to be away.

Even visiting Ten was an excuse and Taeyong felt horrible again.

Leaving the rest of the cookies on the table. covered by some napkins, Taeyong took a major portion and stood blankly in front of his best friends' flat. He was contemplating if he should really go through with his plan, after all Ten was far from a morning person and they were not in the best of terms. But he ended up knocking the door and ringing the bell anyways.

Better be here than face Jaehyun.

He waited for a while, with each tick of the seconds hand he felt increasingly dumber to be even standing there, not to mention the time. But he stood there anyways.

He was about to press the bell a second time when he heard urgent shuffling from the other side of the door. He fixed his hair with the hand that wasn't holding the box of treats and adjusted his face to hold and apologetic smile.

The door swung open.

"H-who are you?"

Taeyong was perplexed as he found himself staring at a rather impressive upper body of an orange haired stranger, who was hastily putting on his shirt. He threw a hesitant smile towards Taeyong before running downstairs mumbling an almost unclear  _Just a friendly_ _neighbor_  under his breath. 

"Tae?"

This voice was familiar, even though it sounded drowsy and tired, and kind of husky as if he was been talking all night.

"Ten!!" Taeyong ran inside, towards his best friend, who, to his surprise had his arms wide open in invitation, and he didn't decline. "I missed you."

"I missed you too Tae...I wanted to talk to you before but...I guess I'm just a coward."

"No...it was my fault anyways." Ten grimaced at him as they separated and looked away  in guilt. That's when Taeyong noticed the red marks on Ten's neck, and collar and one more right under his ear. "Ten...who was that man?"

Ten sighed, his hand ruffling his hair in what seemed like almost frustration.

"A huge mistake, that's what that was."

They settled on the couch, and Taeyong noticed the differences in the apartment, the things were the same, but there were a few boxes lying around and Taeyong looked around, kind of lost since it didn't look like either of them was moving away, or packing, it was weird. Why was Johnny staying with them again?

"Johnny and I broke up...I guessed you'd have heard by now."

"Yeah he told me."

Silence again. The two munched on the cookies, sitting next to each other with an awkward gap between them. It was awkward because that is the place that Johnny occupied  _Right between his two little babies,_ so that the taller could cuddle with Ten and wipe Taeyong's tears as they watched movies, or just serve as the barrier to prevent bloodshed when they were arguing, or even just while talking.

"We're okay though." Ten started again, his voice super serious and he turned to look at Taeyong, right in the eye. It gave him a sense of déjà vu. "We had a mutual break up, and it isn't your fault at all. Okay?" his stern voice and the steady eye contact with him spoke volumes. 

They really were done.

Ten went on to explain how they had been fighting for the last six months, on and off and had almost broken up a couple of times before already. He ruffled Taeyong's hair when he saw the boy's confusion.

"I didn't ask to room with Johnny because I was scared he'd cheat, but I genuinely wanted to be with him because I just knew that if we were apart we'd be over after day one. Apparently I was wrong."

"But I never noticed anything."

"That's because we fell into a routine when we are with you. It's just so simple, you were...are our glue Tae. You don't understand just how much you mean to the both of us. We literally forgot out own issues when we were with you, and even on days where we swore we wouldn't talk to one another, we'd end up ganging up on you. But even that could only last so long. When you exploded that day, and we'll come to that soon, Johnny and I had one of our worst fights, and the next day, after we had both cooled down enough we sat down, had a good talk and decided that we needed a break."

"So it is my fault."

"No...I just told y-"

"If I had kept my anger in check..."

"If I had kept my jealousy in check you mean." Ten retorted, quickly placed his palm over Taeyong's mouth, stopping him from saying another word. "I owe you an apology for being the worst friend."

"What do you mean?"

"Taeyong I knew...I always knew...but I dated Johnny anyways."

"Bu-"

"Just hear me out...I wanted to tell you this for so long, to apologize and to clear my conscience, but every time I'd imagine the look of hurt on your face and the disappointment in your eyes and I would just chicken out." Ten got up from his seat and knelt in front of Taeyong and took his hands in his, bowing as if in remorse and Taeyong gasped. 

"T-Ten!! Don't!! It happened so long ago...don't...please don't cry!!"

Ten had always been Taeyong's pillar, and Taeyong had been his. They might not be the best at showing just how much the other means to them, but that didn't mean the feelings weren't there. the very fact that despite them both being hurt by the other, the two were crying into each other arms like teenage girls was proof wasn't it? 

"Remember Hanbin hyung?" Ten asked, sniffing slightly and wiping Taeyong's tears. 

"Yeah, the football team captain you kept undressing with your eyes back in  school...what about him?" He teased, despite the situation.

"Yeah, he was hot okay!!...well, the thing is...we got closer, you know sns and all, and we would hangout when you were busy..."

"Liar..." Taeyong chuckled, remembering the times Ten had ditched him, and considering the timelines, connecting the dots wasn't that hard.

"Well, that's what I meant back then. Anyways, I was sure he was going to ask me out until he handed me this letter and a small gift -which I thought were for me- and told me to pass them on to you. That's when I realised that he had been asking me about you only every time we hung out and then with a shy smile he asked me if I was ok with him asking you out, I just flipped."

"Ten..."

"I know you didn't know and it wasn't even your fault, but I was too hurt to even mention it. I threw those things away as soon as I reached home, and cried so hard Taeyong, like ugh! It still annoys me that I wasted tears on that idiot. Anyways, it also happened to be the day Johnny was supposed to come over since he needed help with some shit and I had agreed, but the completely forgotten about it. So he found me in that state, and while trying to comfort me he confessed he liked me." Ten stole a glance at him, and Taeyong smiled, even though it had stung a bit, encouraging Ten to go on. "I honestly didn't like him in the beginning, but after he told me he liked me, I just started to notice him more, and before I knew it I had fallen for the same guy as you. I wanted to tell you, but every time I would feel so guilty, I almost broke up with Johnny back then too. It was such a struggle Tae! I ended up blurting it during graduation period because I really thought I'd never see you again and I didn't want to part without tell you."

"Well, we are best friends, we are bound to have the same taste and are just as cowardly and have weird OCD issues." Taeyong chuckled.

"Hey! It's not funny!"

"No it isn't, but I really don't care anymore. Like it used to hurt back then, even until recently, but then after I lashed out that day it really didn't hurt me anymore. I was frustrated about it, but other than that I was fine. Thanks for telling me all this though, I have reasons to hate you now."

"Shut up you big snowman...you hungry?"

"Very!!" 

The two got up and raced to the kitchen like kindergarten kids. They laughed together as the made breakfast and Taeyong even confessed about his feelings for Jaehyun. Which the Thai didn't find shocking at all, much to Taeyong's chagrin. The ended up having a water fight because Ten started predicting how soon Taeyong would lose his virginity and that gave Taeyong idea and pictures about Jaehyun which he wasn't ready to have in his mind just yet. He even got that sarcastic applause he had anticipated, along with a slap on the head, because according to Ten he was _as dense as Johnny's hair._

"You seriously are an idiot if you think Jaehyun likes someone else....anyone else but you." Ten talked with his mouth full of bread and his hand half to stuff himself even more.

"Can we please not talk about him!!"

"I wanna talk about him though...and you...I heard from Joy that he is really good in bed and---"

"BLAH BLAH BLAH...!!" Taeyong screamed, and Ten ended up choking because he had laughed along with his mouth full. After saving Ten's life, he remembered the stranger from earlier. Tit for tat.

"Ten who was that half naked guy who ran out earlier...?"

"Ugh! Can we not talk about him please?"

"Aha...no...we are talking about him...spill."

"Gosh, okay. That's one of Johnny's classmates. He just dropped by to hand over some of Johnny's notes and ended up helping me move."

"And giving you hickeys?"

"Shit!! No way..!"

Ten rushed into the bathroom and screeched in horror when he noticed the marks on his neck, with shouts of _No way! No fucking way!!_ and followed by a soft _Johnny is going to kill me_ echoed through the flat and Taeyong somehow was pleased with the reaction. It didn't need Sherlock Holmes to figure out that the two had fucked last night, plus the beer bottles on the table earlier were kind of telling that they were pretty high when they did the  _deed._

Just when as they were done cleaning up after breakfast, Johnny rushed in, panting.

"Ten!" He screamed, looking around the living room and then making a beeline for the bedroom, completely oblivious of the fact that the person he was looking for was right behind him, in the kitchen.

"I'm here Johnny." Ten sighed when the said boy knocked over one of the boxes and spilled the contents onto the floor, not even bothering to pick them up. Taeyong cringed knowing that Ten probably was using an immense amount of control to not burst out at the other for that. He knows he would've skinned Johnny alive if it were him.

"Taeyong ran away!!" 

"What?" Both Taeyong and Ten exclaimed, utterly shocked. Because Taeyong, in Taeyong's belief was right there, behind Ten, if only Johnny could take his eyes off of Ten for a minute, he would've noticed the boy.

"Oh...you were here...gosh dude! Leave behind a note or some message or something before you leave...Mark is almost in tears, Jaehyun thinks he hugged you too hard last night--"

"Woah, wait...why did Jaehyun hug Taeyong?" Ten asked, completely more interested in that part of what Johnny said, rather than notice that he mentioned that Mark was around too. Classic.

"Well I might've worked my magic and made them sleep together last night."

"No Johnny!! Taeyong is too pure for that!! How dare Jaehyun defile my baby! And you didn't tell me that he popped your cherry bomb!!"

"What the--!! we didn't have sex...oh my gosh!"

"I bet you wanted to too tho!" Johnny smirked and went to stand next to Ten who was busy preparing his cup of coffee.

"John, sweety....shut up. And you!!" he pointed towards Taeyong with a spoon, "Don't _Oh My Gosh_ me young man, we are having a nice talk about safe sex!! I cannot b-" Before he could finish speaking, a loud slap echoed through the room and Ten let out a slight moan. It took Taeyong 10 seconds of staring at a frozen Ten and a shocked Johnny to realise what had just happened.

"J-Johnny...did you....just spank Ten?" Even just saying the words out loud caused Taeyong to get redder on the face, he couldn't fathom how bad Ten and Johnny would be feeling right now.

"Why is that word in your vocabulary." Ten started, glaring at Taeyong (who just shook his head in exasperation, because he and Ten are the same age, yet he gets treated like a child), but not before hitting Johnny with a spoon on his head. "We were together for years, so it's ok, I forgive you this one time, don't you ever do anything to me in front of my baby ok?"

"S-sorry." Johnny was staring so hard at his hand, as if scolding it for automatically connecting to Ten's ass when they were close by. And as if he had just realized something, he jumped away from Ten and opted to sit next to Taeyong as Ten continued with whatever he was doing. "Jaehyun's pissed. You better go home soon little kid." He whispered, nudging Taeyong. 

He shook his head, gesturing towards Ten.

"Go...I need to talk to him alone anyways, we'll be fine."" he offered a tight smile and urged Taeyong to leave. He really didn't want to,  but figured that if by talking they get back together, then nothing like it, right? Otherwise he'd have to consult some experts (read: Yerim) and try and bring his two idiotic friends back together. The obviously still have some feelings for each other.

 _We needed a break from each other_ is the worst break-up excuse he had ever heard anyways. 

He just had to make sure Johnny never found out about that orange haired dude from earlier, that wouldn't help anything at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If looks could kill, Taeyong would've been six feet under the ground half an hour ago, and honestly, that seemed much better than the silent treatment he was being given by Jaehyun. Literally everytime he said something, he'd either get a reply in the form of Mark giggling or a simple shrug of shoulders from the blonde. And even though he knew he should've told the boy before leaving, that too so early in the morning, he couldn't help but feel annoyed.

_It's not like he's my boyfriend, why are his briefs (or boxers) in a twist then?_

He would've pointed that fact out, if only he didn't remember the look of relief in the blonde's eyes when he walked in from Ten's place.  He had almost gotten a hug from the boy, before he realised that Taeyong didn't deserve it and huffed before walking away into their shared bedroom. And all Taeyong could do was throw a pillow at Mark to make him stop laughing his ass off. 

"Jae!" He whined, following the boy around kitchen like a puppy. But the other wasn't sparing him any attention and Taeyong was getting more and more frustrated. "Hyunnie~~I'm so sorry! I really forgot to leave a note...please don't be mad." He said, taking one of Jaehyun's hands in his and swinging it from side to side between their bodies.

Nothing.

Jaehyun spared him an unimpressed look before taking his hand back and walking away.

Taeyong pouted, contemplating whether to use his ultimate weapon against the boy, or to just let him cool down on his own. But then he remembered that he didn't like being ignored by his prince JJ so he deployed his weapon ASAP.

_Teeyongie's super puppy eyes...attack!!_

He blocked the boy's way, with his hands spread wide, and his face split into a wide grin. Jaehyun looked at him with one brow raised and placed his hand in his hips, his poker face not giving much away. But Taeyong wasn't worried, that would change soon.

With one swift motion, he cupped his cheek, widened his eyes, jutted out his lower lip and tilted his face to the side. This was his fool-proof method, even Ten fell for it, and he only used it in emergency situations. Jaehyun not talking to him qualified as emergency. He even used his agyeo voice as he apologised again, and he never used his aegyo voice on anyone. Jaehyun better forgive him.

In the backgroud, he could hear muffled laughter but he really didn't care right now. He was too busy searching Jaehyun's expression for even the minutest change from the stoic one that he had on at the moment. 

Nothing. Nada.

Johnny gasped dramatically and Jaehyun walked past Taeyong towards the fridge and just went on with cooking whatever he was cooking for lunch. Even Mark had his mouth wide open at the unexpected result of _Teeyongie's famous fool-proof aegyo_. Taeyong's aegyo never got ignored, this was the first time, and in Johnny's mind he could picture how Ten would've freaking pushed Jaehyun into a volcano for not forgiving the boy on spot. This moment would go down in history for sure.

That being said, Johnny was the weakest to Taeyong's aegyo to the point where the boy didn't even have to use it on him, just simply saying it normally would have Johnny jumping around fulfilling his wishes. So maybe he should just get lessons from Jaehyun,  _How to Resist Taeyong:101._

"Hyung, taste this." Jaehyun suddenly spoke up, thrusting a spoon of whatever he was cooking at Taeyong's face. Mark scoffed, and leaned back on the couch, disappointed that Jaehyun had cracked, he wasted his energy giving a reaction for nothing.  _Things would've been so much more interesting if he had kept up his act._ While Johnny was still in awe of Jaehyun,  _I should really beg him to be my master._

"O-okay." Taeyong timidly replied, slightly thrown off at things, but he ended up opening his mouth and taking in the spoon of whatever Jaehyun was feeding him. Colors exploded in his mind as soon as the food hit his tongue, and he moaned in pleasure unconsciously. Not noticing how Jaehyun clenched his hands around the spoon tighter nor the strain in his jaw, at the sound. 

"This is amazing!!" He exclaimed, getting excited and jumping around like a puppy when just a second ago he was the world's most dejected puppy. "Wow, Jaehyun...really...what is this?"

"I don't know, I'm just adding stuff together. I do that when I am angry...I'm still mad at you by the way." He replied, turning away from the black haired boy and resuming his creative cooking. "Go take a bath, you smell like sweat...and I don't particularly enjoy the smell of sweat on people." He quipped back, well aware of Taeyong's weakness and the boy could do nothing but pout his way to the shower.

Later that day, Johnny and Taeyong dragged an very unwilling Mark to railway station. His  _FUN_ weekend was over and he had school tomorrow, and Taeyong's mom told him send that brat back scince Wendy was getting upset because of his absence. 

In short, Mark knew he was in trouble and he didn't want any part in his own doom. Plus, he had to face Donghyuck if he went back, and he literally begged Taeyong to let him stay, because he wasn't ready yet for that confrontation. And Taeyong would've let him stay, it was his little brother asking him for help after all, and how could he refuse that face? But Johnny put his foot down and kicked the boy out of their shared room and packed his back and pulled him to the station single-handedly, Taeyong had only just tagged along. 

"Maybe we should just let him stay...?" Taeyong mused for the nth time as he watched Mark struggle against the grip Johnny had on the back of his collar. It looked as if Johnny was holding a kitten by the neck and not his brother.

"And let him skip school? No way. I am in no way letting anyone off the hook and miss school, I attended that shitty place without skipping a single day."

"IT IS NOT MY FAULT YOUR DAD WAS THE PRINCIPAL." Mark screamed.

"No, that one is on mom. But I am a sadist and I say you go to school tomorrow, study well and kick Donghyuck in the balls if he comes near you before you are ready to face him."

"I knew you were a sadist." Mark answered, though this time his voice was much lower and he looked much more dejected, realising he had no way out. "Can I really kick hyuck in the balls?"

"Sure, but don't blame me if he doesn't wanna put it in-"

"JOHNNY!" Taeyong screamed this time and quickly went to cover Mark's ears. Both the brothers faces were red and Johnny had a hard time controlling his laughter. Classic Taeyong to try and protect his brother, when he himself is probably more mortified by his words. It's pretty obvious who had more experience between the two. "My poor innocent baby brother."

"Calling that brat innocent is like calling Ten a virgin." Johnny quipped and dodged an attack from Taeyong and continued laughing. "Even the kid's had more dick that you...!" 

Taeyong couldn't be more embarrassed as even Mark started chuckling along with Johnny at his expense. He felt a tad bit bitter, but he really couldn't argue back because it was true anyways.

His life just sucks.

The two had to push Mark into the train in the end, earning them a million judgmental eyes, but they did it anyways, their own college was starting and they had enough headaches, and heartaches, as it is. They boy tried his best, but left with train in the end.

As they were walking back, talking about random things, ranging from their past, to what to have for dinner, Johnny noticed someone from the corner of his eyes. In front of the supermarket, with groceries in his hand. He almost called out, but then stopped when he remembered his conversation with Ten that morning.

_Hey, he gave me his 'go' to do whatever, so I'll just do whatever._

And so, with an evil smile, which only he knew was evil, he wrapped a lazy arm around Taeyong's waist and pulled the flustered boy closer to him.

"What say we catch a movie before we go back home huh Yongie?" He suggested, well aware that a pair of very, very jealous eyes were on them at the time and his life was potentially in danger for just touching precious Taeyong, but they'd thank him later. He was sure.

"M-movie? But Jaehyun and Ten are-"

"It's been a while since it's been just the two of us. Come on Yongs! For old times sake?"

"O...okay. Which one do you want to go to?"

Taeyong was blushing, but Johnny knew that had nothing to with how close they were standing, or what Johnny was suggesting was probably like a date. It was because the boy was flustered, and anyone would be, if someone just makes new plans in middle of the day.

But the boy, across the street, with the grocery bags in his hands wouldn't know that. He'd probably see Taeyong's red cheeks as his reaction to Johnny and that was what his plan was anyways.

Oh boy was he going to be so jealous.  _Or should we say *jae*lous? Hehehe._

Johnny smiled his sweetest smile at Taeyong, who narrowed his eyes in suspicion at his best friends strange behaviour, and linked their hands as he pulled him into the movie theater, talking non-stop about the movie he wanted to watch, and how hot the actors in it were, and how excited he was that Taeyong agreed. Effectively shutting off any protests from the shorter, because Taeyong wouldn't dream to get in the way of Johnny's happiness. And Johnny used that to his advantage unashamedly.

So the black haired boy, let himself be dragged into the movies, completely oblivious to Johnny's evil plan and the really frustrated blonde across the street.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	11. Sunday's not Funday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As usual, weird shit happens

 

 

Taeyong is thoroughly confused by the days events.

It started off with him avoiding Jaehyun, to him trying to get Jaehyun to talk to him, to Jaehyun sitting on the kitchen floor with a tub of ice-cream and his eyes glued on the phone with what looked like tears running down his face.

Or it could be sweat, because Jaehyun's didn't look sad, just a bit delirious.

Not to mention that Johnny had been dragging him around the city, it started with a movie, which then turned to getting coffee, and then a walk in the park, which ended up in them having dinner outside.

He did mention that Jaehyun was probably waiting for them back at home, but Johnny kept dismissing Taeyong's worries,  _He's a big boy, he can handle himself._ But then looking at the boy's state, he doubted it.

Oh...and Jaehyun wasn't blonde anymore.

When they had initially entered the flat, looking around for the silent roommate, Taeyong screamed and threw his right shoe at the black haired human, sitting in the middle of the kichen floor, of course, the human turned out to be Jaehyun. And he was so shocked by the hair that he ended up throwing the other one at him too. The second one hit Jaehyun right in the head, and the boy toppled down on the floor and just giggled.

"Jesus...Jaehyun are you drunk...or something...?" Johnny actually sounded concerned while Taeyong was attached to the wall furthest from the smiling boy. He won't deny, this Jaehyun was a bit creepy and he was slightly scared. 

"Noooo~" Jaehyun sang, and then cupped his mouth started giggling as if he had said something funny. He suddenly sat up and started hiccuping. "Oops?" He voiced as in wondering if he really did the action by mistake, and then turned to Taeyong with wide eyes. Immediately, Jaehyun's face split in half and he crawled forwards quickly, hugging Taeyong's legs like a koala and rubbing his cheeks against his thighs. "'Tis my favorite person!! Yay...!!" He exclaimed, letting go of Taeyong's legs for a moment to swings his arms in joy before latching onto Taeyong again, and despite being apprehensive about the situation, he found Jaehyun irresistibly adorable right then.

His cheeks were all rosy, and his eyes were shining with joy, and his dimpled smiled just made everything so much better, and Taeyong, who was already falling, felt as if he was in free-fall. He was falling for Jung Jaehyun again.

"Jaehyunnie...are you drunk?" he cooed, kneeling down next to the boy, who took the chance to attach himself to Taeyong again. 

"No~ hyung...I'll tell you a secret...come here..." Jaehyun whispered, pulling Taeyong closer by the neck. "You absolutely cannot tell it to that scary hyung over there okay!" he cautioned (Johnny just rolled his eyes because Jaehyun was not even trying to be quiet as he said it), and Taeyong just really wanted to pinch the boy's cheeks, but he played along, humoring their little act. As long it kept that smile on Jaehyun face. 

_Yeah, I have it bad._

"I cannot drink alcohol....my tolelance lebel is vely low..." Despite having pulled the Taeyong closer to share this secret, Jaehyun had pretty much shouted it out as if he wanted the world to know. Completing his words with accompanying actions, it almost looks like those action rhymes they taught in pre-school.

"This ice-cream has some alcohol content in it." Johnny noted, while Jaehyun started giggling and latching onto to Taeyong. "He must've bought it at the mart today..." Johnny the put on spoon of the treat in his mouth and hummed. "It's nice though, I'm keeping this. Jaehyun's too much of a baby for this, and you _are_ a baby, so case closed."

"bu-but..."

"No buts kiddo...now look after that pile of baby with you, I'm going to watch some movies and catch some z's and pray to get through next week in one piece."

"Jo--"

"Big bad man go! go! go~" Jaehyun waved at the door Johnny had just closed, and Taeyong was once again wondering just how things had gotten to this.

After heaving a very much delirious Jaehyun into his room, he took a second to catch his breath, thinking what the next step was, because honestly he had never had to deal with a drunk person before. Between the three of them, both Johnny and Ten were really good at holding their liquor and even Taeyong wasn't too shabby. And he is too scared to drink more than a glass, or just a sip because his mom had the nose of a bear, and he really didn't want to risk getting caught.

"Are we going to dream now?" Jaehyun asked innocently, and started giggling and thrashing around on the bed, as if excited with the idea. "Hyung will you dream with me?"

"Ah-"

"If we dream together...will we dream the same thing?"

"Ah-"

"I want to have the same dreams as you hyung..."

"Jae-"

"Will you dream of me hyung?"

"Wh-"

"I dream of you a lot...but you don't look too good in them..." Jaehyun frowned at Taeyong, as if complaining, as if it was Taeyong's fault.

"I don't?" Taeyong finally got to get a question out him, but the boy didn't really seem to notice.

"...no, you look prettier in real life. So pretty...the prettiest!!" Jaehyun exclaimed sitting up on the bed with his hands wide open. "Hyung you are the prettiest in the world..."

"R-rea-"

"So...pretty...pretty nose, pretty eyes, pretty ears, pretty hair, pretty skin, pretty hands, pretty body, pretty nostrils, pretty cheeks, pretty---hehe...pretty lips..." the last part Jaehyun said in a very shy manner, and Taeyong felt his whole bpddy blushing with that statement.

"Pretty...?"

"I...can I...I want to...so much...so pretty...and pink and.. soft and sweet...and can I hyung?" Jaehyun eyed him, and for a second, he seemed to have sobered up. Taeyong blinked at the boy, who slowly lay back down on the bed, arching his bad against the matters and smiling sweetly at the really, very confused and disoriented boy, who was still standing near the door. "Can I kiss you Taeyong?"

Taeyong took a sharp breath, the action causing him to inhale a huge amount of the musky scent he identified as Jaehyun. The question the boy on his bed had dropped as ricocheting in his brain, and as always his heart beat went haywire and stomach started flipping around his insides as if it wasn't attached to anything anymore. 

The free fall just got a lot more fall-y than before.

"Don't~" Jaehyun started again, whining as he pressed his face into one of the pillows, getting comfortable while Taeyong was going through life crisis. "Don't~"

"Wh-wha...what don't...?"

"Don't go out like that with that bad bad man....he's bad...and he's big...and bad...and I don't like him..."

"You mean Jo-"

"Nooooo~ don't go with anyother man..."

"Huh...?"

"I...I don't like.....wa....tchin..g...you...with oth rppl....hyu...ng..."

And just like that, the newly black haired boy drifted off into dream land, dropping bomb and after bomb in Taeyong's heart and with every replay in his mind, his cheeks became cherry red, or even redder. 

_Just how had the turned out to be so...destructive..._

Taeyong had to carefully coax his body to function and ended up having to change the drunk boy's clothes, Jaehyun smelled too much of ice cream, and Jaehyun was half through taking off his underwear already when Taeyong had to cover him up with his blanket (to protect both of them) and only just managed to get some sweats on the sleeping boy.

But hey, who was he to complain? 

Ten would kill him if he found out, but Taeyong was certainly not going to tell him that he slept beside an almost naked Jaehyun. He loved life a bit too much right now.

He didn't exactly share the same sentiments the next time he opened his eyes though.

Because, the next time he'd open his eyes, it would because he was woken up by the hot breaths on the back of his neck, the tight grip on his waist and the feeling of Jaehyun grinding against his lower body. His body froze. He literally couldn't pull away, even though he wanted to (a/n: no he didn't) so he opted to just stay still and pretend to be asleep. But Jaehyun pulled away a little later, and Taeyong let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He had just gotten himself to calm down, when Jaehyun moaned. 

Needless to say, Taeyong ran out of the room, like he had never before, and found himself knocking on Johnny's door. Who, thankfully had been awake, or more like, had woken up to open the door. He wasn't very welcoming, but didn't ask much questions and let Taeyong latch onto to him as he guided them both back to bed. He was too sleepy to care about shit Jaehyun had done to scare Taeyong away this time.

Come morning, Jaehyun woke up to dried cum in his underwear and if that hadn't been frustrating enough, he also walked into, what looked like one of Johnny and Taeyong's cuddle sessions. And no, Prince JJ did not like it even a little bit.

Taeyong was super embarrassed too. Jaehyun had not only confessed that he thought he was 'pretty' but also that he wanted to kiss him, and then went on to have a wet dream, while grinding against him. It was second hand embarrassment, combed with first hand embarrassment and not to mention Johnny teasing when he finally told the boy why he had ran away.

"Aw...is my baby finally going to get some action?" he teased as they walked out their apartment complex. Taeyong was now immune to that jab, he was more worried about the fact that he hadn't gotten a call from him mom about Mark reaching and he was just about to call her up when his phone chimed, indicating he had recieved a text.

_**From: WenDad**  
Mark is home Taeyong, don't worry. Sorry we forgot to text, we were busy grounding the boy. Did he by any chance tell you why he ran away? Did he have a fight with Haechan?_

_**To: WenDad**_  
_I was just about to call you._  
Umm, I don't know, he did tell me bits of it, but you might want to talk to give him 'the talk' soon.   
And who is Haechan?

 _ **From: WenDad**  
Ahhh~ I see. Sure son. Thanks Tae  <333_  
_You don't know Haechan? It's Donghyuck's new name._

Taeyong frowned at his screen, wanting to ask more about this 'Haechan' Mark had definitely not mentioned. But couldn't because, for the second time in 24 hours, Taeyong's breath got knocked out of his lungs and Ten jumped on his back with a loud greeting.

"What's going on~~" He sang, comfortably taking his spot next to Taeyong as the three walked towards their first lecture. They had arranged their schedules in such a way that they get to have at least Monday morning lecture with each other. They were all different courses anyways. Johnny was a sports major, while Ten a dance major, and that left Taeyong who was majoring in literature.

"Taeyong's getting some dick-action soon." Johnny relayed everything to his ex, who listened to every word with utmost seriousness, both of them ignoring Taeyong trying to divert the topic.

"Tae, I told you no! Not yet! You are not sleeping in the same room as him anymore...ok! Promise me!" Ten burst out, shaking Taeyong's shoulders as if trying to break his trance. It wasn't working at all, because Taeyong stopped listening to their conversation as soon as they entered their lecture hall.

"Don't be such a joy killer Ten, let the boy have some fun!"

"But Johnny...he's our baby! What if Jaehyun takes him away from us..."

"Guys the lecture is starting now."

That shut his two friends up, but they still ended up giggling when the professor announced that the class has to submit their critical appreciation of the classic,  _A Midnight Summers Dream,_ which was perfect because there was nothing Taeyong appreciated more than dreams at the moment.

After the trio had parted ways, Taeyong found himself back in the library. He didn't have class until afternoon and he knew Jaehyun would still be at home at this time, and he was the last person he wanted to see right then. Plus, he'd have to see him at lunch anyways. 

In the few weeks that they had known each other, they as the whole gang, it had become an almost unspoken ruke to have lunch together at the canteen. What had been just him, Ten and Johnny had now become him, Ten, Johnny, Jaehyun, Dooyoung, Taeil and starting today Hansol. It was a pleasant change, Taeyong wasn't used to having so many friends, so he was usually quite when they met up. He just took a bit more time than usual egtting comfortable enough to open up, and he was glad that his new friends were understanding enough to not push him much.

Oddly enough though, Jaehyun had been MIA at lunch, and even when Taeyong went back to apartment after class, there was no sign of the ex-blonde. It was confusing, since the boy hadn't told anyone that he'd be going somewhere, nor had he left a message. He wasn't even picking up his phone and Taeyong was getting worried.

Though Johnny seemed unfazed.

"He's probably out on the courts, you know how crazy he gets once his head is in the game."

"But he skipped lunch!!" 

"Ooooor he had it with his team? Come on Yonggie...calm down."

"Why are you still here again?" Taeyong huffed, annoyed by his friends lack of interest in Jaehyun's whereabouts while he was going crazy with worry.

"I already told you why!!"

Since those two were together, Johnny had initially arranged their flat such that they shared a room and had a spare room for whenever Taeyong or anyone wanted to crash. But they broke up, and there wasn't exactly many options, so they decided to just room together. So Ten was in-charge of the shifting process, since Johnny had done it the first time, while the Thai was downstairs playing with Taeyong. Only, Ten seemed to be taking his own sweet time redecorating.

It sounded ridiculous, but right at the moment, Taeyong had other things to think about. 

Like where Jaehyun was, why he wasn't home, and why he was ignoring his phone calls.

The boy wasn't back even as they were about to have dinner, and now even Johnny was starting to get a bit worried. Taeyong scoffed, as he watched Johnny searching for his phone with a frown on his face.

"He won't pick up." he started, Johnny was calling Jaehyun, and he had been doing that every five minutes for the last two hours.

"We'll see---Hey Jaehyun! Where are you bro!?" Johnny exclaimed, showing Taeyong his tongue for a second, but then he noticed the hurt look on his friends face and he immediately retracted it. Taeyong was looking away from Johnny, playing with the hem of his shirt and his eyes filling up with tears.

Jaehyun had picked up Johnny's call, it didn't a fool to realise that it meant he had been ignoring Taeyong on purpose.

"Oh, okay. No, it's fine...No. We were just going to have dinner so...ok...yeah. Have fun. Bye." Johnny ended the call and sighed, he rubbed his temples in exhaustion, because he really wasn't good at dealing with Taeyong like this. That was Ten's forte, and right now Ten was on a date and he really didn't want to get in middle of that, though a really small part of him was tempted to.

"Umm, he's hanging out with a few of his friends and won't be home until late. He asked you not to wait up."

"Just say he's out partying...it's fine..." Taeyong looked up smiling, but Johnny's heart broke because he could tell Taeyong was hurt. He had known the boy long enough to confidently say that Taeyong was an introvert. He shied away from new people, but he eventually warmed up. It was also very difficult for him to speak his mind, or take an active effort in getting to know other people. That is why he was so proud when he found out that the boy had willingly gone to Ten first, and even Ten had been in tears as he told Johnny about it. They were proud of their friend, and to an extent they knew that being around Jaehyun had influenced the change.

Amidst all this, was Taeyong's biggest weakness, he never fought for himself, he just gave up. In every argument that they have ever hard, Johnny has always noticed how easily Tae would let Ten win, or how the boy opt to stay quiet even he was annoyed. His last outburst was long over due, three years almost. They knew that, and that is why they tried to encouraged the smallest of steps he took to change that. That is also why they both agreed that making Taeyong jealous to accelerate the JaeYong couple happening, was a plan doomed to fail. The boy would just stand back and give up. 

It was frustrating at times, but it's his best friend and Johnny loved Taeyong a lot.

"Wanna get a beer or something?" He offered.

"Nah, I think I'll go take a walk. Thanks though."

Taeyong did feel much better when the cool air hit his face. He honestly didn't even know why he was hurt in the first place. Jaehyun was out partying and probably didn't hear the phone ring over the music. But he still overreacted, and couldn't stop feeling bad.

_You didn't see him the whole day._

That was actually the first time since they started college that Taeyong hadn't even seen Jaehyun. It felt weird, how had he gotten so used to the other? 

He decided to take a detour to the supermarket, to grab some snaks and maybe a small walk in the park would cheer him up enough to head back home and not cry when Jaehyun wouldn't be there. He really didn't want to cry about this at all.

After purchasing a few bags of chips, and a cold drink, Taeyong settled beneath a tree over looking the playground in the park. He had been here once with Ten, but then after college started getting busy, they couldn't visit again. They had both like it. Simply because it was very organised and clean, and smelled great. And all those properties actually calmed Taeyong down a lot.

He took in a deep breath, calming himself and smiled to himself as he opened on of the many things he had brought and his drink. He had taken a sip of it when he noticed a very familiar figure on the swings.

He could be wrong of course, but those broad shoulders and white skin belonged to only one person he knew.

"Jay!" A voice called out, and both boys turned to look at the source. Taeyong didn't know her, but Jaehyun seemed to as he got off his swing and made his way to greet her. He hugged her and they were laughing, and talking. They walked back to the swings and sat next to each other, just talking. The girl suddenly held out her hand, and Taeyong watched just how, without a second thought Jaehyun just took it and they talked while holding hands. 

No he wasn't jealous.

But he just wanted to point out that this wasn't what a party looked like to him. 

The two eventually got up and walked away, but Taeyong stayed in his spot. Everything was just hurting so much, just so very much. He just sat there, his snacks and drink long forgotten until his phone rang and he had to answer it.

"Yong...where are you? You Ok?"

"Yeah, I am on my way home Johnny." Taeyong smiled. He got up, dusted off his pants and walked back to his apartment. 

 

 

 


	12. Sides to a story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaehyun......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is all over the place so bear with me a bit...sorry!!

 

 

__** Special Chapter:  
There are Two Sides to A Story **   
  


_**(So this is Jaehyun's side)** _

 

 

 

 

 

 

First day of college.

A whole new life.

And a whole new list of conquests for Jay.

He was super excited. School hadn't been the best experiences in his life. The typical teenage angst love story spoilt the experience for him last minute. Honestly Jaehyun wasn't even a part of the whole fiasco but got dragged in because he had, for a fact, slept with both the parties involved.

Lets just say he was very experienced. In bed.

So that part of the  _new life in college_ he had down. His only problem was his low alcohol tolerance, but then that is easily hidden with one line  _I'd rather be sober and remember our night together_ or something like that, it always took people's mind off of the fact that he was actually drinking apple juice. But no harm done.

Before you jump to conclusions, no Jaehyun wasn't scared of falling in love, nor did he no believe in love or any of that cliche shit that people usually say. Jaehyun wasn't even  _looking for THE ONE_ as some would like to phrase it. He was just having fun and keeping his options open.

Plus he was kind.

He was gifted, in both the looks and "that" department, and he just thought that it wasn't too fair to keep it to himself. That's all.

So, even though his goody two shoes cousin, Taeil begged him to 'keep it in his pants' for at least one semester, he had already narrowed down the list of people he could potentially hook up with. 

"At least leave your roommate alone." Taeil grumbled, noticing the say Jaehyun was scanning the people around, like animals hunting for potential mates.

"We'll see." Jaehyun had initially thought hooking up with his roommate would he the hottest shit ever, and sincerely hoped his roommate was hot.

And he was not dissapointed.

Lee Taeyong was hot. 

And Lee Taeyong also vomitted on him. First day, first meeting.

Jaehyun would've blasted the boy to the moon and back for ruining his brand new shoes, but then he noticed the pale skin turning red, and the way those big ebony eyes shone with guilt as they looked at him. Everything around Taeyong was shining and Jaehyun was blinded.

He even forgot about the vomit on his shoes as he was in a daze the whole time after the encounter. He didn't notice until he saw his shoes, washed and left out to dry, that for the first time in a long while his heart was beating like crazy and the only face in his mind was Lee Taeyong.

Things didn't get any easier after that, much to Jaehyun's distaste. He sincerely wanted to get to know his roommate better, but it seemed his roommate was rather keen on avoiding him. He had always had people throw themselves at him, he need only spare them a smile and they'd be putty at his feet. But no amount of his charms were working on this wide eyes boy. In fact, his actions only made things worse.

Also, Taeyong had a very sensitive nose.

He had gotten closer to his roommate's friends, through basketball, and he had infact learned a lot about him through them. Even about his odd addiction to certain smells. Only Jaehyun found it endearingly adorable, rather than annoying as they described it. Taeyong had a habit of unconsciously sniffing the air every time he entered a room. The action would make his nose scrunch up in everything adorable. And if Taeyong found that the room didn't smell good enough for his liking, he would do this weird wave thing with his finger and shake his body slightly.

But if he liked it, and Jaehyun had only seen that reaction once, Taeyong would take a deeper breath and sigh in content.

His mind often reeled back and forth between his memories since college started and all his favorite ones included Taeyong in some way. It included even the simple days where Taeyong's fingers brushed with his as he passed him the salt at lunch, and subsequently would turn into this shade of pink. He kind of liked running them over in his mind, catching more and more details about the scene each tiime. Besides, Taeyong could never bore him.

His favorite one was the bitchy Taeyong.

You have no idea how hard Jaehyun was gripping on to the chair when Taeyong growled at him at lunch. It confused him, because in his mind, Taeyong was always writhing, all submissive, underneath him and so Taeyong being aggressive should do anything but make the blood rush to his dick. Which is exactly what happened. And he was thankful for Yeri's interruption and used that gap to think about the time he walked in on grandparents frenching, and that helped bring the 'swelling' down. The thankfulness had only lasted until Yeri confessed to Taeyong, and then Jaehyun was gripping the chair hard for a completely different reason.

He had been so jealous.

Of Yeri and of Johnny.

He knew the other boy had known he was watching them, he had seen Johnny look at him before suddenly turning to Taeyong and getting all intimate. He knew the boy was doing that to make him jealous, and boy did he succeed. Jaehyun, holding onto what was left of his pride had refrained from calling Taeyong ten times every minute, purely because...well pride. But then the more time the two friends took to come back from their 'play-date' the more anxious he was got.

He was pacing around the house, pausing only to look at his watch, and sigh dramatically when he realises only one minute had passed from the time he last checked the watch. It had been painful him to experience the time alone, he wanted to call Dooyoung, because that kid was smart, but stopped himself the last minute because he remembered that the boy had some shit to do and Taeil cut his call after two ring.

The idiot even switched off his phone after the third call.

So Jaehyun decided to do the next best thing, eat ice-cream.

He had no idea what happened later, but Johnny tells him it was downright hilarious, and Taeyong refuses to look at him in the eye and he remembers waking up to dried cum in his boxers and no Taeyong in his...ahem...Taeyong's bed. He had been worried about the boy until he saw him kissing Johnny on the cheeks at 7;30 am in the kitchen. Which was when he lost his shit.

He wasn't just uncomfortable, he was very very, really, super jealous and wanted nothing more than to just pull Taeyong into the room, push him against the door and ravish those pink soft lips that haunted his dreams day and night.

Needless to say, he needed a really cold shower after that.

And he needed his best friend too.

Moon Taera was actually Taeil's younger sister, but genius enough to be a final year at the same college as them. She was really the closest thing he had to a sister, a real sister and not the fake ones who only showed up christmas and cooed over his chubby cheeks and dimples and dissappeared until next year. Yes he was fucking annoyed by that.

Anyways, Taera understood him.

He was scared, just like Taeyong, but for completely different reasons. And they both reacted to it in different ways, while Taeyong chose to run, Jaehyun decided to try moving on which obviously resulted in him running after Taeyong at the end of the night. He still regrets that 'spur of the moment' thingy that happened outside the stadium, and he regrets it even more knowing that Taeyong was somehow aware of it.

He felt like shit when he saw the lack of emotion when Taeyong addressed that. He expected him to acuse him, or curse at him or get angry or at least be upset, but the other had just smiled at him, while munching on his tteobokki and breaking Jaehyun's heart a little without even knowing it.

While he knew Taeyong was pure and innocent and a bucket full of all the good things in the world, he couldn't help but want to destroy that. Everytime those wide unguided eyes met his, he would flip and it was only sheer will power that kept Taeyong's virginity intact.

That and the fact that Jaehyun wanted more out of Taeyong that just sex.

Jaehyun wanted all the sweet kisses on the cheeks, and walks on the beach. Holding hands, the back hugs, and stories of sunrises and sunsets. He wanted the intense emotion filled fights where they were so terribly angry at each other and the sweet, sweet whispered apologies of make-ups. He needed the tears and the smiles, the laughter and the cries. He wanted Taeyong's everything. And it was the first time he felt like that, and he was terrified about the prospect of giving himself up, to that extent, to someone whom he barely knew.

"Take the plunge Jay, wasn't that your motto? No risk, No life? Where's that boy I knew; The one who had jumped of the plane even before the instructor said ready? You are not the type to back away from challenge Jaehyun oppa!"

Taera was right, he wasn't the type to be sacred by a lot of things. But he had never been in love before, and no matter how  _soon_ it was, he knew he was in love with Taeyong.

Every moment he spent away from him was a teller of just how strongly he felt for the boy. His every thought would automatically turn back to Taeyong, what he was doing, should he text him, if the boy would like the dinner he had planned, and his the boy was still bothered by his deodorant.

Jaehyun wasn't used to being so considerate of another human being. He was a single child, and had only cousins. though initially he had been jealous of those with siblings, he quickly adapted to the pros of being the only child. More attention, more toys and more money. Though Taeil would argue that that also meant Jaehyun was vain, greedy and unnecessarily mean, he knew that the boy meant it jokingly, because the Jaehyun everyone knew was a charmer when needed, and only Taera and Taeil knew the real him. But, he really was a bit mean to people he didn't...find interesting. And lately, that was just everyone except a certain Lee Taeyong.

He was positive he would put the world at Taeyong's feet when certain words spilled out of Johnny's mouth.  _He likes the way I smell naturally?_ That was the first time Jaehyun had noticed how Taeyong would breath in deep when he was around. Even back at Taeil's place, the boy had done the same thing, sniffing his neck and Jaehyun felt something stirring in the pit of his stomach as Taeyong walked closer and closer.

And damn he would've kissed the boy a 100 times already if Johhny hadn't been a dick and interrupted their little  _moment._ But Jaehyun was low-key thankful that Johnny did that, Taeyong deserved a proper confession before anything.

So he'll just have to hold it all in till the right time.

Only he didn't know when the  _right_ time was. obviously, it wasn't when Taeyong was distressed about Ten and Johnny's relationship, Jaehyun needed him to focus on 'them' completely. Plus, Mark's problem was also troubling Taeyong a lot. And then there was Johnny.

That little piece of shit thought was being smart all the time. But it only made Jaehyun even more angry.

He wanted to be the one who Taeyong smiles at like that. It didn't help that he had found out that Taeyong had run to Johnny that day morning. Though he had a raising suspicion that it had something to do with the situation in his boxers, but hey, he was human. And the Taeyong on his dream was super hot, and Jaehyun was just dying inside with shame everytime he saw him in real life because Taeyong just had no clue about how hot he was, and was too innocent for his corrupted mind.

"Taera! What do I do?"

"Is this about Taeyong again?" She sighed, sitting beside him on the swing, and as he spilled his guts she offered him her hand. "It's going to be fine, just go with your gut. Don't wait for the right time. Before you know it, he'd be in someone elses' arms all because it wasn't the 'right time' for you to confess yet."

He was scared of confessing as such. He was scared of Taeyong's reaction.

Historically Taeyong was known to run away whenever he was faced with a slight problem. And Jaehyun was scared that if he got rejected, he would also lose a friend, and all the work he had put in to get the other to open up to him, even if it was just a bit.

"Being friends is going to be difficult anyways...so it's good if he avoids you when he rejects you."

"When! When? Why are you so sure he will reject me?"

"Well personally I have never understood wheat people see in you. You are pretty regular."

"Well sorry if I don't suit your tastes."

"It's fine, I'm glad actually."

"You are just as shitty as Taeil."

"That is why we are siblings...and I think you need to work on your pronunciation, that is not how you say 'genius'."

"Shut. Up!"

He had been confused as he walked away from Taera that night, but when Jaehyun walked into their temporary shared room to find Taeyong buried inside the blanket, only his eyes and nose peeking out, and his hand curled underneath his soft hair with his pink lips in a pout, as if he was displeased with something, Jaehyun decicded.

He needs this boy in his arms, and he will make sure he at least tries. 

No more waiting, besides there no right time that now, right?

Or maybe he could wait until the boy completed his sleep. Yeah, he could wait that long.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <33


	13. Kiss and Tell

 

 

 

A lot could be said about how Taeyong was feeling, or felt when he watched the interaction between Jaehyun and that girl. But serisouly, jealousy wasn't one of them, at least not one of the strong ones. 

He was just hurt and confused.

Jaehyun didn't have to lie about where he was, and all that still didn't explain why he was missing the whole day and why he had ignored Taeyong's calls.

Even as he had walked back to the apartment, he had wanted nothing more than to call the boy up again and ask him to come back as soon as he could. He really wanted to ask. But at the same time he wanted to not see Jaehyun at all.

His own feelings scared him. 

He would be hurting one moment, but the very next he would think about Jaehyun's words last night and he would immediately smile. It was so confusing, and he even contemplated his sanity. 

But that didn't mean he didn't still really really like Jaehyun.

Taeyong wasn't jealous, from what he had seen of the girl's interaction with Jaehyun, they seemed close, but not the kind of closeness that lovers would have. Their gestures towards eachother did have familiarity and love, and initially Taeyong had felt a pang because he was always awkward around Jaehyun and the boy seemed to have to try hard, but then he saw how the girl ruffled Jaehyun's hair like a puppy and how he swatted her hand away. They seemed like friends, but whatever it was, one thing Taeyong had gotten from his evening was that he really wanted Jaehyun all to himself.

_I'm not going to just hand him over to anyone._

When he reached home, Johhny had already gone off into his (Jaehyun's} room which meant he'd have to share with Jaehyun again. He even contemplated falling asleep on the couch for the night. But he knew that  _if_  Jaehyun did comeback, he'd carry him to his bed anyways, so he ended up settling under his blankets and falling into a deep dreamless sleep, not being able to wait up for the boy he dearly missed.

The next day, Taeyong was woken up to the sound of his alarm. And the first thing he noticed while reaching out to off it was the lack of the pressure around his waist that had been there for the past few days.

His heart sunk, it seemed Jaehyun'd hadn't made it back home last night, and he was yet again about to reach for his phone when his nose tingled and the musky smell of Jaehyun reached his nose. He immediately turned around, only to be faced with the boy.

_He came back!!_

Taeyong really couldn't help the smile on his face as his eyes traced the lines of Jaehyun's face. He seemed to be sound asleep, and Taeyong wondered just how late the boy had stayed up before crashing here. He looked tired too; his hair was all ruffled, and nose a bit red, his mouth was slighty open. All in all he looked etheral in Taeyong's eyes and he really couldn't stop his hands from following his eyes and trace every edge of Jaehyun's face.

He gently rubbed his thumb on those plump cheeks he always wanted to pinch, and then moved to run along the boys nose bridge up towards his eyebrows, which he ran his finger's along and then dipped down to the spot where Jaehyun's killer dimples always appeared. He pushed his finger into the spot, gently enough to not wake up the boy, but the action still made the sleeping boy scrunch up his nose. He looked positively cute and Taeyong giggled into the pillow.

He let his hands rest on the boys cheeks. Just watching the boy sleep was making Taeyong sleepy as well, but he willed himself to stay awake anyways. He let his eyes roam freely until they focused on Jaehyun's lips.

And his mind started getting excited and his body began to react to their situation. He could kiss those lips as Jaehyun would never even know. 

Suddenly a hand cupped his, on top of Jaehyun's cheeks, the action startled Taeyong, and he looked up to see a pair of teasing eyes staring right back at him. He tried to pull his hand away, but Jaehyun wouldn't let him.

"Good morning hyung." he whispered, scooting closer to him, leaving hardly any space between them. "When did you wake up?"

"Just now...when did you come?"

"I don't remember the time, but you were already asleep."

Taeyong didn't respond to that, he literally couldn't. He was tongue-tied due to their proximity and his brain was too busy controlling his eyes so that they don't malfuction due to the intensity with which they were trying to take in everything that was Jung Jaehyun.

"You don't have to look at me like that you know.I'm not going anywhere." he quipped, a smile blossoming on his face. Taeyong wanted to scoff at his statement, because he was sure Jaehyun was looking at him the same way. The boy shifted even closer and now their bodies were pressed together, and bumped his forehead against Taeyong's. "I missed you yesterday." his sweet sweet whisper was literally like a lullaby to Taeyong, his mind was slightly distracted and his eyes fluttered close. His hands slid up Taeyong's arm and came to rest on his waist, and gave it a small squeeze, as if announcing it's presence.

"You were the one that was gone." he pouted, trying to mask the blush on his face and his obvious excitement at their closness.

"I know, and I'm sorry baby...I had something to do." Jaehyun cooed, and at first Taeyong didn't register the  _baby_ and pouted even more, causing the other to chuckle and rub their noses together. But when his brain finally was done processing the sentence, he gasped.

"Did you...I'm not your baby..." he frowned, but ofcourse the frown was only adorable in Jaehyun's eyes.

"No? But I think you are." There was a challenege in his voice, along with the smirk on his lips, and Taeyong wanted to wipe it away, but he was too flustered to look up and into Jaehyun's eyes. He had full faith that he would fall into them and with how close they were he knew he would do something he would regret later. 

Like kiss him or something.

But as he felt a warm wetness on his forehead, he couldn't help but look up at the fair boy in reflex. Jaehyun was smiling at him so bright, and Taeyong was lost in limbo again. 

This was one of the time Taeyong really wondered if Jaehyun felt the same way about him. He wasn't the type to believe others usually, but in this case, as he replayed the countless comments from JohnTen, Taeil and even Yeri, he couldn't stop the hope from blossoming in his heart. Besides, he really really wanted it to be him; the one that Jaehyun likes, he truely hoped it was him.

"Hyung...?"

"Yeah?"

"If I ask something of you, would you promise to give me a chance?" Jaehyun asked, his voice betrayed nothing, but Taeyong could tell from his eyes that Jaehyun was serious.

And it wasn't like he could really deny him anything in his current state. That kiss had pretty much given the boy a free pass for everything.

"Would you go on a date with me...tonight?"

Taeyong doesn't exactly remember what his words in responce were, or if he even spoke, but Jaehyun had smiled at him so brightly and hugged him so close. Twisting the bodies such that Taeyong's body lay on top of his, with his head tucked into Jaehyun's neck. Taeyong's laughter spilled because he had honestly never seen the boy so happy, and excited, and that made him happy and excited.

So he probably agreed to the  _date_?

The two just lay there, on Taeyong's bed, totally content, and would've stayed like that for the rest of the day if Ten hadn't suddenly burst into the room, completely scandalised by their position, and asked multiple times to make sure that they were not naked under the sheets before dragging Taeyong off of Jaehyun, causing both the boys to whine, and Johnny to shake his head in mock disgust. Ten didn't even let Taeyong eat breakfast and just pushed the boy out of the flat.

"You are going to be late for class, go boy, while mommy has a good talk with that pervert."

Taeyong couldn't even give a reply to that, because he was really uncomfortable with Ten referring to himself as his mommy. The door was already closed, and locked as he had suspected, and from the otherside, he could clearly hear screams of agony and shouts and stuff that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

Plus it sounded like Jaehyun was in pain.

But he knew Johnny was in there too, and that boy was big and strong enough to hold Ten back from doing Jaehyun any real harm. But on a side note, Johnny was kind of Ten's puppet most of the time, so, he wasn't sure anymore, especially since the next scream sounded like Johnny's.

Taeyong ran off when he started recieveing weird looks from the neighbours. He rather not explain what was going on inside, because he didn't know either, and he was kind of sure it might lead to homicide and didn't want any part in it.

_All because we were cuddling...and Jaehyun asked me for a date._

The word 'date' did things to him, and Taeyong found himself skipping to his first lecture, which happened to be the one he was sharing with Hansol. And he couldn't wait to tell his new friend about the 'date' and maybe even get some advise and all...you know.

He was totally high on his happiness factor, that he didn't notice a dark grey haired male join him in his 'skipping' walk towards the building.

"You look super happy Taeyongie!" the person cooed, announcing his presence to the boy, who immediately tumbled to a stop and looked beside him in shock.

"Yuta!!"

"Hey bro! What's up?"

"Wh-what's up!! What IS up!!" 

"That is what I asked too! Yay hi5!!" 

Yuta then smiled his wide ass smile and winked at Taeyong before walking towards the same direction Taeyong had been heading, with a suspicious looking bag in his hand. 

"W-wait! Yuta!!"

He kept staring at the smiling boy, still not quite registering his presence and mostly just suspicious if he was just seeing things. He looked away and scanned the class to spot Hansol sitting at their usual spot, with exactly two vacant seats next to him. One of that was Taeyong's, and he guessed the other could go to the imaginary presence of his Japanese cousin.

"Hansol!!" He ran up to the boy, who was confused, since Taeyong hardly ever shouted, let alone run shouting. He looked at the panting boy in front of him, and nodded his head asking him to go on.

"Can you see this thing?" Taeyong pointed behind him, and Hansol stopped living for a second. Literally, one could see the soul fly out of his head.

"Yu-yuta?" 

"You can see it?"

"Stop referring to me as a thing. Hi Hannie~~ Suprise!"

"I think I need to go...pee." Hansol mumbled, gathering up his things and running out of the hall, just seconds before their professor entered, making it impossible for Taeyong to go look for him.

"Damn, I thought he'd be hapy to see me." Yuta pouted, and Taeyong hit him on the head with a book.

"Shut up and listen."

Yuta had apparently trasferred to Korea from Japan as his parents were moving to the country for business and what better college to attend than the ones he already had friends at. Taeyong wanted to point out, one, Yuta only knew two people, both of whom didn't look too pleased at his arrival, and two he needed to shut up because they were supposed to be listening to the leacture.

Yuta, being Yuta, went on chattering, noting and ignoring the looks from people around them while at the same time, looking straight at the professor and writing down notes with perfect accuracy as if he had been trained to multi task.

Taeyong though wasn't skilled at that, and between Yuta, the lecture and the date he had later that day, Taeyong's mind kept wandering and Jaehyun was certainly winning the race.

The lecture went by, and suprisingly Yuta wasn't called out for his continuous talking. The Japanese had another lecture, so he bid goodbye with promises of meeting up for lunch at the canteen and Taeyong wondered if Hansol had told the boy about their lunch-time rituals. Suddenly reminded of the boy, Taeyong went to check the bathrooms on the floor, pretty sure that the boy wouldn't have stayed that long when he said he just wanted to pee. Also, that had seemed like more of an excuse than anything else. 

He still went though, and Taeyong probably has never regretted his decision more.

Because as he opened the door to the only gents bathroom, on the far end of the floor, he was faced with two men, actively eating each other's faces. With a kind of ferocity he had only seen between Johnny and Ten. He had been scarred for life then, and he was scarred for life now. Especially since the two men he saw were people he was pretty close to.

Besides, they hadn't even noticed Taeyong entering the bathroom and went on with their business uninterrupted. One of them cursed, and the other moaned, and Taeyong, who was frozen on spot realised that their was little more than lip action going on. One of their pants were on the floor and hands were doing  _something_ that Taeyong's uncorrupted mind identified as a handjob (he knew this only because Ten had insisted that he know 'certain' things before they entered college). 

Another moan echoed and Taeyong just burst out of the room, not even bothering to be quite as he shut the door behind him. 

_What even are those idiots doing in a public place like that!_

He ran till he was outside the building, bending down to place his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

"Hey baby...you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost or something." 

Taeyong looked up to see a concerned Jaehyun looking down at him.

"Jaehyun?" he panted. "What are you doing here?"

"Being a good date? I need to take care of my baby right? What happened, why are you so pale?" Jaehyun asked again, wiping the sweat on Taeyong's face with his sleeves, and Taeyong swore he heard someone coo at them, but then that could be his sub-consciousness. Or the two girls peeking at them from behind the tree. 

"I rather not talk about it. Serisouly though, what are you doing here?"

"Well, serisouly being a good date. We both don't have classes right now, so I thought I'd come pick you up so we can go home togther. " The boy explained, taking Taeyong's bag from him. He succeded only the because the shorter was still slightly confused. "And Ten may have laid down some rules that I have to follow if I wanted to date you."

"Wh-what?"

"Yup. Its all harmless really, and stuff that I wanted to do for you anyways, so it all fine."

"Like?"

"Hmm...like this." Jaehyun turned to him and bent down a little to peck on his cheek. "Cute." He mused, obvisouly liking Taeyong's reaction a lot. Jaehyun's eyes twinkled at Taeyong's flushed face, and he wished time would just pause long enough that he could tattoo the moment in his mind for ever. Because Jaehyun sincerely believed that Taeyong had no idea just how beautiful he was. "I don't think you mind either baby. Let's go?"

Taeyong nodded, a small smile gracing his face as Jaehyun naturally held onto his hand as they walked back home, he heard the coos again, but he was too focused on the warmness of his cheeks. Little did he know, that Jaehyun was just as excited and nervous the whole time, as he was.

They got freshened up, and ready for their evening and after lunch classes before leaving together for lunch with the other. They were in their own little bubble again, with Jaehyun being super attentive and Taeyong being super shy, and trying to reciprocate as best as he could. Jaehyun didn't even bother hiding his smile when Taeyong took the initiative to hold hands this time. They might not be official yet, but Jaehyun was going to make sure that changed tonight.

"YONGS!!" Jaehyun stooped in his track, his mind trying to process the voice and associate it to a face he recognised, but sadly the boy who was now twirling his future boyfriend in the air was someone he didn't recognise. And Jaehyun wanted nothing more than to beat him up when he heard Taeyong's protests turn into giggles -a small part of his mind noting down that the boy liked the action- and Ten's hand on his shoulder was the only thing holding him back.

That and his shock when he saw Yeri running up to them with a huge smile on her face and shouting a loud  _Taeyong-oppa!!_

_When had he become her oppa? When? Where and Why!_

Taeyong of course went and hug the girl when he saw her, happily chatting with her with the same familiarity that Jaehyun had seem him have around Ten, and it did nothing to salvage the situation.

He could only look on as Taeyong linked his arms with the girl and sashayed their way towards their seats leaving him between two smirking idiots, one of whom immediately wrapped his arms around Jaehyun.

"So you are loverboy huh?"

"I'm sorry do I know you?"

"You should."

"I'm rather less inclined to actually."

"Well, wouldn't you want to know your baby taetae's cousin?" 

"Oh, please tell me--"

"Yes baby! Thats me!!" 

Taeyong glanced back at the three boys he had left behind, smiling when he saw how annoyed Jaehyun was as Yuta kept talking about something, while Ten was giving him a thumbs up.

"I wonder if Jaehyun oppa is going to let me live for a while longer." Yeri mused, her head resting on his shoulder as the two sat at the table with their lunch. "He's really possesive...you didn't tell him about us?"

"What  _us_ did you not tell me about...ba..by?" Jaehyun gritted through his teath, sitting opposite to them, his eyes narrowed down at the point where Yeri was touching his body, and Taeyong shivered, thanking god that he had missed them playing with their feet under the table.

"Nothing."

"This doesn't seem like nothing."

"Eat Jaehyun." Johnny interrupted, and Jaehyun almost tore his head off, but didn't do it because he was acutely aware that Taeyong would certainly want his best friends head to be still attached to his body.

"B-"

"Just eat." Ten stuffed food inside Jaehyun's mouth, taking advantage of the fact that the boy was mid-speech. 

Of course, if Jaehyun's glares were any indication they were far from done with the topic

But luck was on Taeyong's side as Ten came to his rescue right after lunch, and after each class he would he escorted by two people, a still pretty pissed off Jaehyun and a super smug Ten.

"Hey...you going to be like that for our date too?" Taeyong whispered to Jaehyun, when Ten was too busy talking about something he had seen somewhere during sometime of some year. Classes were over for the day, and Jaehyun really wanted to get started on their date, but Ten was being a cockblock as usual. Why were all of Taeyong's friends such teases?

"Like what?" Jaehyun scoffed.

"All sour...and unhappy..."

"I'm not though."

Taeyong smiled, and intertwined their fingers.

"If you get that smile back on your face, I'll tell you something special after dinner." Jaehyun looked at him all curious, raising his eyebrows in question, while Taeyong just stuck his tongue out. "Come on." he urged, and Jaehyun would never even dream of denying the boy, so he smiled.

"Ugh, can you guys be sweet and fluffy when you are alone?"

"We would be alone if you weren't here."

"Well I'm here...and I will be right here." Ten scoffed, pulling Taeyong into his room as soon as the reached the flat. "Now go do whatever lover boy, I gotta get my baby ready for his first date."

 

 

 

 

 


	14. You are mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end??

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update!! Please do read the previous chapter before this one!! <3

 

 

 

 

 

It didn't take longer than two hours for Ten to find Taeyong's  _First Date Outfit,_ you know because Taeyong is going to remember this for the rest of his life and needed to be at least dressed perfectly. Ten's faith in Jaehyun was astounding.

When he did finally step out of his room, Jaehyun was asleep on the couch and Johnny lay asleep on the floor beside him. Taeyong cooed, Jaehyun sleeping hugging the pillow was such a cute sight. He was sitting, with his neck stretching to rest his head on the back of the couch. It looked uncomfortable, and Taeyong wanted nothing more than to put the boy in bed and maybe snuggle into his warmth and just smell him all night long.

But of course Ten had other plans.

His unhumanly screech jolted the two sleeping men awake. And both cowered under his wrathful glare. Of course, Johnny was the only one with actual, somewhat,  power in the situation and he pulled a monstrous Ten out of the flat before they lost Jaehyun forever.

"I'm sorry...I just..." Jaehyun started, unsually bashful, and it caused Taeyong to blush too. "I ordered food...I wanted to take you out...but, I think I rather not share you with anyone right now." He smiled and walked closer.

Taeyong was frozen. He could only watch as Jaehyun stepped closer and closer till they were just a few inches apart.

"Dance with me while we wait?" He asked. And without even waiting for an answer, he pulled Taeyong into his arms, and twirled the boy around the room. Taeyong of course, yelped in suprise, but the that turned in giggles.

"We don't have any music Jaehyun!!" He laughed. Moving his arms to Jaehyun's shoulder and the man took them into another spin.

"Really? I can hear it though...you can't?" Jaehyun smirked, dipping the other lower and laughing along at his expression. "You giggles are music for me though." 

"Shut up!" Taeyong whined, hitting the other's shoulder's with almost no real power.

"Tae, look at me please?" Jaehyun whispered.

His voice went straight to Taeyong's stomach and the already frenzied butterflies went haywire. He willed himself to look up.

Warm and chapped lips pressed against his and the two boys momentarily stopped their little dance.

It was just a simple peck by Jaehyun, but it had Taeyong giddy. The other started to pull away, and almost ready to comment about Taeyong's apple cheeks. But he couldn't, since he was cut off by Taeyong pressing their lips together again.

This time though, Jaehyun didn't hold back. 

Taeyong let himself be pulled closer as his roommate nibbled on his lower lips. Taeyong felt an urgent urge to feel more of Jaehyun on him and his hands just automatically went to the other's hair, tangling themselves in it and running his nails along his scalp. He pulled on it, having no idea why, but he just did, and the groan Jaehyun gave him as a reply hit him right  _over there_ and he moaned.

"Fuck...Tae...don't make that sound...please..." Jaehyun gasped and he pulled away, facing up and taking deep breaths as if to calm himself, though Taeyong hardly heard anything, he was too distracted by the other's adam's apple which was bobbing up and down and he, without thinking twice, latched his lips onto it. The action ofcourse made Jaehyun moan loud, in both shock and pleasure. "Taeyong!!"

"Hmmm...?" Taeyong hummed, smiling when he realised the effect he had on the boy. He loved it, and honestly was just pushing his limits. Exactly like Ten had instracted.  _Keep them on their toes, and always keep them wanting...thats the right way to keep your man._ Of course Taeyong doubted it's credibility seeing that Ten and 'his man' had broken up and they both were already seeing other people. But still, he knows being a bit of a tease wouldn't harm anyone. Plus he loved having the upper hand and being the one to make Jaehyun flustered for once.

"You...ah..." he moaned again and Taeyong pressed closer, and began pressing kisses along his jaw. "You should stop...be...before..."

"Before?"

"Before..." Jaehyun suddenly growled, and Taeyong shivered. He had gotten a bit carried away, blame Jaehyun's irristible smell on that, and bit into a spot behind the other's ears. "I throw you onto the bed and do something we'll both regret in the morning." Taeyong momentarily froze as Jaehyun effortlessly threw the boy onto the couch and hovered over him. His pupils were dialated and breathing was a bit ragged, and if Taeyong had a bit more courage and let his eyes trail away from the other handsome face, and go down south, he would've noticed a small tent in his jeans.

But Taeyong didn't notice it, and him being the oblivious baby he was, plus fueled by Ten's _Magic advise_ , only saw this as his plan working. The boy smiled. "Who says I'll regret anything?" he quippes, immediately wrapping his legs around the others waist and pulling him down.

It was during the course of this action that Taeyong realises just what Jaehyun meant, and that he shuld never listen to Ten's  _Magic advise_ again. 

First on, Jaehyun fell onto him, and knocked the breath oou of him, since 1) he was pretty heavy and 2) their lower regions collided and that caused Taeyong to moan and realise just how effected he himself was. Jaehyun moaned too, right next to Taeyong's ear and the sound made Taeyong buckle up his hips, which made the sound erupt from their mouths again. 

"Shi-shit Tae..." Jaehyun readjusted himself to get the weight off of Taeyong but didn't move away. In fact the boy pressed their hips together harder, and Taeyong knew he fucked up when his body just stopped listening to him and thrust up to meet Jaehyun. Not to mention that Jaehyun's hands were under his shirt, which Ten had ironed just minutes ago and would probably have cut of their heads if he saw how crumpled up it looked now.

Of course, all thoughts of Ten and his devilish deeds flew out of his mind as Jaehyun moved his hips against his again and his body responded. In fact Taeyong was pretty sure he could feel, hear, smell, and see nothing but Jaehyun.

"This is not what I had planned for out first date." Jaehyun chuckled, almost making it seem as if the two weren't humping against each other on the couch. 

"Then what had you planned?" Taeyong whispered, having lost his trust in his voice which wouldn't stop making those embarassing moans. Jaehyun was wrong afterall, he is already regretting this.

"A nice dinner, a stroll by the river, and a sweet first kiss while I drop you off by the door." He answered with a sweet smiled, leaning down to kiss Taeyong. And Taeyong grinned back.

"We can still do the last one." 

"I think we went beyond that last one though baby" Jaehyun added throughtfully.

"Oh? as if you aren't enjoying this." And to prove his point, he pulled Jaehyun's body towards him and kissed the boy while grinding. 

"Oh I am enjoying this very much...though I am feeling slightly used."

"What?"

"You are going out with me for my body right?" Jaehyun mock pouted. And Taeyong laughed and pushed up to kiss his cheeks because pouting Jaehyun was too cute to not do that.

"Yup, of course. Your body is the only thing good about you...and your smell." 

"Well...OMG...I'm offended, but I'll let you know that since it's you, I don't mind, but I am only giving this piece of art away to someone I call mine."

"Yours...?" 

"Mhmm...will you do me the honor of being my boyfriend Mr. Lee Taeyong? I'll give you this..." he said while grinding down onto Taeyong's hardness "...and so much more baby." purposly making his voive sound husky and winking at Taeyong, which made the boy giggle in delight.

"Oooh...sounds promising."

"You bet. So will you Tae?"

"I wouldn't dream of giving that honor to anyone else. So yes, I will be your boyfriend."

He was attacked by a hurricane of kisses on his face, and laughter echoed through the flat when the two fell onto the floor, feet tangled and arms around each other, laughing and just being happy. They kissed lazily, taking it slow knowing that they have all the time in the world to take care of that little problem in their pants. They would've have stayed that way for the rest of theri _date_ , if the doorbell hadn't rung and two stomachs hadn't began growling at the exact same time.

So they got back up, Jaehyun paid for the delivery like the good boyfriend he was, while Taeyong set the table. They both, for the first time didn't have much to say except smile wide everytime their eyes met during dinner.

"I guess it's time for that kiss, since you are dropping me off at my door." 

"Well technically, yes."

"Just come inside." Taeyong laughs and pulls Jaehyun into his room and his boyfriend tactfully closes the door with his leg, well aware of the thristy eyes waiting for some juicy news, and lets himself be dragged to their bed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so, this is the end
> 
> There is of course more to the story...we have MarkHyuck, YuSol and JohnTen to resolve.
> 
> And I'll do that, I promise...as epilogue or spin-off chapters on here itself. And smut...I have it all planned in my head...so stay tuned?  lol.
> 
> Thanks for sticking around...I started a soulmateau+aboverse+royaltyau jaeyong, it might not be thaaaaaaat good, but please do check it out. It's kind of angsty...or will get angsty, soon. 
> 
> Thanks you so so so so much!!
> 
> Love ya'll!!


	15. Epilogue One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look into what happens afterwards...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is always room for trouble in paradise.

 

 

_ **Epilogue 1~  
Do It Baby ** _

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It had been exactly six months, 10 days and 12 hours since Taeyong and Jaehyun started dating. Yes. Taeyong was counting every second. Every day with Jaehyun had a special place in his heart, his calendar and his diary. His upcoming dates, anniversary and events with Jaehyun had a special reminder on his phone. In fact Jaehyun himself had a unique caller tune so that Taeyong always knows that it is his boyfriend calling without even having to look at the ID.

Yes. Taeyong was sickeningly in love with the campus hearthrob Jung Jaehyun aka Jay. 

But he was this close (picture a grain of sand) to smashing that boys head into the kitchen counter and maybe even breaking up with after breaking all his teeth and ribs and bone and cutting his dick off and feeding them to dogs.

Yes. Taeyong was utterly frustrated with the dense dumbass boy friend of his Jung Jaehyun aka Prince JJ.

Why?

Well the matter is very embarassing for Taeyong, since his experience in the field of dating is only Jaehyun, and he knows for a fact that Jaehyun has heaps of experience and even has a talent in bed. A lot of of Jaehyun's ex-flings had approached Taeyong in the first month of their relationship, after Ten let it  _accidently_ slip in the cafeteria, and congratulated him on securinng the 'fine' specimen that was his boyfriend.

Though Taeyong had been initially put off by the number of people his boy friend had fucked in the few month after college began, he was also immensely proud that he was Jaehyun's  _boyfriend_ and not just a fling. And deep inside he was very gleeful because he gets to keep the  _fine specimen_ all to himself. And very very extremely small part of him was super excited for when he too could boast about his boyfriends abilities in bed.

Only it had been a month since his patience wore thin, and he was dying for Jaehyun to do something more than make out. heck, their current make out sessions paled in comparison to the first one ie; nothing happened beyond Jaehyun kissing him.

Even tongue action was pretty rare, and the boy only gave into Taeyong when he was feeling especially passionate, was tired or just sleepy.

Taeyong had once made Johnny ask Jaehyun on his behalf about why Jaehyun hadn't  _done it with Taeyong yet._ It turned out completely useless and all Taeyong got out of Johnny was laughter, giggles guffaws and  _I don't even know what he was going on about...something about purity and respect...and I think he just can't get an erection or something._

Taeyong took the last part too personally, and made it his life's mission to get Jaehyun riled up. He would purposely wear short tight shorts around the house, make moaning sounds to show his appreciation for the meal Jaehyun made him (when they were alone together). he even consulted a woman's fashion magazine and bought some essential oil which was supposed to arouse your partner into having sex with you. All that did was make Taeyong sick for an entire week and he had to throw it away before a super worried and fussy Jaehyun discovered it maybe understood his motives and broke up with him because he was behaving like a 'desperate teenager in heat', in Ten's words.

But he still continued his other acts. Even going as far as boldly sticking his hand into Jaehyun's shirt...and once even cupping the other's bulge through his jeans. Safe to say, his boyfriends was definitely turned on that day.

But Jaehyun would acting all nervous and fidgety when things got steamy, as if he was the virgin in their relationship. There was thing one time that Taeyong was so into the feel of the boy's lips moving against his that his restrains loosened up and his thighs rubbed against Jaehyun's groin, and they both moaned because Jaehyun was just so hard. And When Jaehyun gripped his hips tighter and angled his head to gain more access to Taeyong's mouth, and their hips started moving against each other, and Jaehyun moaned, his perverted sub-conscious did this little victory dance. But a second later, Jaehyun chuckled nervously and moved away to the kitchen counter, away from a breathless and aroused Taeyong, picking up where the left off with dinner and started an easy going conversation about fucking egg rolls, and Taeyong was so disoriented that he swore he had no idea what was going on until Jaehyun started talking about his favorite brand of coffee and he just snapped.

Okay, he _Taeyong_ snapped.

There is a huge difference, while normal people would maybe shout, create a fuss, throw a tantrum or even just push their boyfriend on the bed and have their way with them, Taeyong would just withdraw into himself and wonder what he did wrong.

He quietly left the room, leaving behind a gaping Jaehyun.

Of course, Taeyong didn't run away, no way was he going to let Jaehyun go after coming this far. This time Taeyong was going to be stuborn and he will try his best to get things to go his way. And boy was Jaehyun in for.

Now all he had to do was beg Ten to help him seduce his boyfriend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That would've been a perfect idea on any other time of their life but now. Because Ten was, in his personal opinion a mess.

He felt like he was going through some pre-pre-midlife crisis at the moment and really appreciated the fact that Jaehyun was being a good boy and holding back on the sex, because frankly he cannot imagine the how much more stress he can handle, and frankly, his baby Taeyong losing his virginity is a big deal.

So when said baby came to him for help he turned him away, directing him to the only man he trusted Taeyong with. Johnny. Besides, he knew Johnny was kind of a dimwit and anything he plans would end up ensuring 'no sex' for Taeyong. Johnny could handle one problem of his.

His other problem was the orange haired man sleeping next to him. Literally had no idea when he had Sehun started having sex regularly, he doesn't even know if what they have is just a fling, or a friends with benefit kind of thing, or if Sehun thinks they are togther or something, or worse Sehun actually has feelings for him. The last one he cut off as soon as he through it, there was just no way Sehun had 'feelings' for him, since Ten is a hundred percent sure Sehun is deeply in love with his lecturer Kim Jongin. It's hard to miss, especially since that's the name Sehun moans when he cums, but Ten doesn't take offence in that, since he his guilty of the same too. 

Only he doesn't make it as obvious.

His most major problem though, besides the dull ache in his head and lower back, just so happened to  be Seo Johnny. His ex-boyfriend and forver best friend. He was so confused about what he wanted; about what Johnny wanted; about what was right for them. He was just plain and simple lost. During the one week Johhny had moved out to stay with Jaehyun and Taeyong while he re-arranged their flat was hell. He missed his giant teddy bear, he couldn't sleep a wink without him. He had opted to pass out on the couch instead of dragging his feet to the ice cold bed, he hated even just looking at it.

Initially, the night they broke up, Ten had blamed Taeyong and stupid outburst. He had blamed his best friend for ruining what he had been barely trying to hold onto. But even as his mind threw a million reasons at him to put the blame on Taeyong, he knew he couldn't. It was his own doing to begin with, and their relationship was already strained.

It had happened out of the blue. 

Since the last few days of High School, up until the day they broke up, Ten had noticed a small change in their dynamics. They weren't texting each other all the time, their daily late night calls had decreased to once a week, and they barely even made plans anymore. Ten wouldn't point finger here, because he was just as guilty as Johnny for not trying harder. Hell, he didn't even do anything knowing that the distance between them was only growing larger as time passed. He even had to find out about Johnny attending the same college as Taeyong through Taeyong.

That scared him, it made him feel small and insecure. How come Johnny had had the time to tell Taeyong such an important news, but forgot to mention it to him? 

That was their first major fight. There were loud voices as they shouted at each other at the top of their lungs, there were tears and glares and everrything Ten hated. Johhny tried to leave back then itself, but Ten held him tight. Somewhere along the way the anger morphed into passion and Ten thought they were okay.

And they were okay for a while. But the fear crept in again. And Ten was losing his sanity every second he didn't have Johnny's by his side.

It was that jealousy that made him drop his acceptance letter from his dream university in the trash can and instead pick up the application form for the college his best friend and Johnny were in.

Some good that did.

Ten had regretted ever doing that. Either way he knew they would've broken up, he might as well have been happy he was at least living his dreams.

"Maybe I don't even deserve that." He mumbled into the dark. Sehun moved arounf a bit beside him, and settled for spooning him from the back, his lips putting a light pressure on the back on his neck.

"You deserve the world Ten. You know you do." Sehun mumbled. Ten was shocked the other had been awake even. "As much as I loved fucking you babe, you should just talk to Johnny. You both are just miserable without each other." he mumbled again, drifting off to a sleep.

But his words kept Ten awake for the rest of the night. He doesn't know about Johnny, but he sure was miserable without the other's presence in his life.

_I love him so much. I miss him. Should I just go and talk to Johnny? If I apologize, would he take me back?_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"You can't just come back and pretend like nothing happened Yuta!" Hansol screamed at the boy. The Japanese didn't look too amused either but he took it in the stride and pushed the angry male against the closed door of his bedroom. He had sneaked in just a few minutes ago, wanting to scare his ex, but instead was welcomed by the view of the man'sfair and tonned back and his dick just decided to take matter into it's on...balls?

"You know that is not why I came back." He said, pressing his body against the other, really having the bare minimum control over himself. Hansol always riled him up in ways he never knew he could be. He was so raw when he was with this man, that it had scared him. But he wanted more, and the more he craved, the more he took, but he was just too scared to give back.

"I know. And that is why...let me go Yuta!"

"I can't!!" 

"Yuta!!" Hansol said, his voice laced with so many emotions that Yuta felt his grip around his wrist loosen. Making full use of that moment of disadvantage, Hansol pushed Yuta's body off of him. But Yuta, in his panic, grabbed Hansol's arms, and the boys went tumbling down on the floor, and not missing a beat, Yuta flipped their positions and straddled his hips. "Yuta please!" Hansol begged again. "Not again...I can't go through that again."

Yuta was half way down, leaning over Hansol to press their lips together when he saw the tears. And he panicked. He got off of the boy and pulled him up, catching him into an embrace and trying to soothe the sobbing boy.

At least that was what he had wanted to do, but Hansol pushed him away.

"What are you doing here?" He screamed, Hansol was just tired. He was so tired of keeping it all in, pretending to be fine; that he was over what happened betwen him and Yuta. Seeing Yuta in front of him again was too much for him. The feeling he had kept secured behind the damn came pouring out as tears streamed down his face, and he almost wanted to laugh at how ironic it was that Taeyong had approached him for relationship advice when his own was so complicated.

Hansol was in love with Yuta. And Yuta was not. It was simple. They had been friends back in Japan. Friends who suddenly got addicted to the taste of the other's lips after a drunken joke their other friends played on them. Friends whose actions went beyond what normal friends would do, their touches weren't platonic, and every moment alone they would be on each other. It was all just something like a sexual stress reliever, only for Yuta. For Hansol though, each of those encounters had a special place, and some where along their play, Hansol had failed to keep the promise he made to Yuta on that first night.  _Please don't in love with me Sol, because I sure won't fall in love at all._

"What do you mean? here as in your room, or i-" Yuta started.

"IN KOREA!! Damn it Yuta this is not funny!" Hansol was losing it, that much Yuta could tell. And he was feeling oddly distressed himself, not annoyed or angry or irritated at the other's rather unusual display of behaviour, but just pain. Yuta was close to tears too, just something about seeing the usually mellow boy so hyper, he knew something was very very wrong. 

"I came to study. I told you earlier right? My university offers a few students each year to come Korea and study for one semester, I just happened to choose the same college as yours. I know you, then there is Taeyong, so it won;t be too hard for me to adjust. Plus the lab facility here is pretty dope." Yuta finished, but he could tell from the way Hansol's shoulder's slightly slumped as he spoke that he had somehow not given Hansol what he wanted to hear. 

"That's all?"

"Yeah." 

"Ok. Get out."

"Wha-"

"GET OUT YUTA!! Just out!!" Hansol threw the first thing he got in hands on and threw it at Yuta. And, unexpectedly, even though Yuta tried to dodge the heavy book that was thrown his way, it eventually hit him right in the face. And he walked out his best friend's room with a bleeding nose, and still very very confused so as to just why Hansol was being so...so difficult. And above all, why did Hansol's tears make him unhappy.

Hansol, finally alone in his room, began to throw his things around, through taking care to spare the heavy ones so as not to make too much noise and disturb his roommate and his lover more. He knew they had heard at least some of it; enough of it to know the who and the what. But he knew that even they wouldn't know the reason behind his tears and pain.

Yuta didn't love him.

Not even after all this time that they had spent apart, Yuta didn't feel any different.

When he saw him next to Taeyong, he was surprised, but he was even more surprised by the way Yuta had smiled at him. It was the exact same, there was no special warmth in it which screamed  _I missed you, you idiot, and I am so happy to see you._ It was his usual, casual,  _Hey there~_ smile. Hansol doesn't know what he had expected would happen, the next time he faced this man, but he knew he was disappointed.

He was disappointed that Yuta hadn't run upto him and decalred his love like he had dreamed of a million times already.

He was disappointed that Yuta main focus had been Taeyong and Jaehyun instead of him.

He was disappointed at his own first instinct was to to hug Yuta tight and kiss him breathless.

He was disappointed that his heart was still beating just as fast as before, at the mere sight of the boy. 

Hansol had missed him greatly in their time apart. And with tonight's events, it was blatant that it was only Hansol who felt anything for Yuta.

_I need to stop being so...so naive and move on. I HAVE to move on._

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark was kind of excited as he stood outside Donghyuck's house with a small gift wrapped package in his hand. Excited was the wrong word actually, the real word to be used here was 'nervous'. 

He had been already pacing back and forth between their houses, changing his decision to go to the boy every two steps, and you really couldn't blame him. After all, it would be the first time he had ever asked anyone to be his partner for the dance.

His trip to Taeyong hyung's place, and the hazy week that followed it kind of passed in a blur and he had no clue that the high school prom dates had been announced in that time, not to mention that everyone he knew already had a partner for the dance, which was already next week and he was left to ask Donghyuck, the only other person he knew wouldn't have a chance to have a date.

Not that he would know.

Their communication had dropped to zero after Mark had run off to Taeyong after their little  _bonding_ session that happened earlier. Mark had been so focused on his sexuality, that he may or may not have ignored the others various attempts at talking to him, and inevitable made the other block him everywhere.

His friends Jeno and Chenle even shielded him everytime he saw Donghyuck in the hallways, creating a kind of barrier between the two so Mark couldn't get through and at least tell the other something he had realised a few days after he returned.

_I like you too._

What he hadn't told Taeyong that night was that Donghyunk had actually confessed to him after their breaths came down. Mark had thought that it was the pleasure from the deed talking, but Donghyuck shook his head vehemently and kissed his lips softly, once, twice, thrice, and repeated his innocent confession. And Mark's replay had been to push the boy off of him and run away, far away into the arms of the one person who he knew would accept him/

 _Taeyong hyung is too kind. No one, not even that doggy Jae deserves that angelic brother of mine._ He mused. Thinking about his brother always brought up

But then he should thank that dog-man perhaps, it was because of that man that he got to see his Taeyong hyung be so cute. And it was through their interactions that Mark caught up with his own feelings.

Mark had realised that he often replaced Taeyong and Jaehyun with himself and Donghyuck. His mind would make conclusions about the other's reactions if he did something, would they be as cute as Taeyong's? Or would they be cuter?

_Definitely, Donghyuck's will be_ _cuter._

This thought fueled his will again, and Mark ran to Donghyuck's doorstep and rang the bell before he chickened out again. He took a deep breath in, and then began fidgeting around with his arm. He had plucked out of of the flowers from his mother's garden on his way here, it was way past sun set, and it was too dark, so he didn't which flower it was, but it had a nice smell so he was just going to go with that. 

He rehearsed the lines he had been practicing since that morning, and even tried 2 different voice he could use to potentially move the boy into saying yes. As he was practicing, the door opened and Mark panicked, and did the first thing that came to his mind.

Which was to get on his knees, thrust the flower and the gift towards the boy, close his eyes tight and just blurt out the words.

"I know I am the stupidest person alive to have ignored you these past days, and I am utterly ashamed of myself. This time wit-without has made me realise how important you are to me. You are not a friend to me...I mean...not just a friend...you are also my bestest buddy, my partner in crime. The one I could depend on to make me smile when I am down, and- and the only one I'll ever allow to...pinch my cheeks and call me Minhyunggie. I am so sorry it took co much time to realise just how much you mean to me. Let me treat you right...I-I-I mean, give me a chance to redeem myself...Please...would you be my date for the room?"

Mark had his eyes closed, so he had no idea what Donghyuck's expression was, heck he hadn't even let the boy speak. He hadn't even said 'hi' before he burted his proposal out. So uncool Mark, so uncool.

One.

Two.

Thre-

"Woah, as touched as I am by that son, I do not think it was meant for me." A deep voice chuckled. And Mark had already thought up at least a 101 different DIY ways to kill himself and save himself from the torture of facing Donghyuck's father ever again. "Donghyuck's upstairs, he said he was studying, but we both know he's probably playing games again. Come on in."

"Uncl-"

"Shhhhh...let's just pretend it never happened ok? Best of luck Mark. And treat my son well." Donghyuck's father laughed again and retreated into the kitchen. He could hear him laugh again as he started his way up the stairs, but his mind was too blank to even think about his actions.

He just stared at Donghyuck's bedroom door for a full five minutes before abandoning his plan. He couldn't do it. He just couldn't ask him for the dance. He had used up all his courage on the wrong person, and he had literally no more of it left. He looked at the gift in his hand and sighed, he had spent all his free time this last week making Donghyuck the perfect I am sorry/go out with me/be my date for the prom gift. 

It didn't feel right to not give it to him.

So he bent down, and just as he was placing the gift and the flower (which he still didn't recognize) on the floor beside his friends' door, the said door flew open.

The thing about the door to Donghyuck's door is that the carpenters messed up it's orientation, so unlike in other houses, where the door to each room opened inward, Donghyuck's opened outwards.

And in this case, right into Mark's face.

And as soon as he saw Daonghyuck's cute, and shocked, face, Mark's barin malfunctioned, the animals in his intestines and stomach and everywhere broke free and where partying, his heart was having a hypothetical race with Usain Bolt. Basically he knew he was fucked the moment his eyes met Donghyucks.

"BemydatefortheprommarrymegooutwithmeshitnotnotinthatorderbutokeasesayyestothepromdateImeanIlikeyouImeanyeahIilkeyouand---"

"Wooooah. Why are you on the floor man?"

"Wha-what?" Mark was breathless on the floor, asking Donghyuck to be his date for prom and he was wondering why he was on the floor? Typical. As annoying as that was, this was one of the things that Mark liked about this boy.

"What...How are you even there? Why are you here? Isn't it ten...wait, why are talking to me? Don't you like hate me or something?" Donghyuck had that sassy look on his face that Mark loved, mostly because usually those were directed at someone not Mark, but today it was for him. And for the first time, Mark felt bad for all those people who had pissed the boy off.

"I-I was apologizing just now."

"I didn't hear a sorry...I didn't hear anything. Are you sure you were talking to me? It sounded like some alien language."

"No...NO!" Mark panicked and stood up again. Then he remembered the gifts and decided there no better time than now to just give them to him. Slight change of plans, he'll just say sorry and scoot. "Th-these are for you."

"I hate flowers."

"So-sorry."

"But since you gave them to me I'll accept it."

"O-okay."

"Thats it?"

"Y-yeah?"

"So you are goign to a chicken?"

"Wh-what?"

"Stop stuttering and come inside." Donghyuck humphed and walked back into his room. "Be a man, get on you knees and tell me the eaxct same words you said to my dad. I want to hear them too." he gave him a small shy smile, and that was enough for Mark's heart to explode and his face to burn red. 

"Oh...yo-okay." he mumbled. And that cause the other boy to giggle in delight, he stepped closer and pressed a kiss onto Mark's blushing cheeks.

"The more you delay, the lesser time we'll have to get naughty after Minhyunggie~" he cooed, giving mark goose bumps all over. Just as he was about to step into the room, a hand stopped him. "But before you come in, please get me a glass of orange juice, it is in the fridge. And some choco-pie too. And close the door when you come in."

"Ok...s-sure."

Mark ran for it like his life depended on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe...how was it? Please let me know in the comments.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lose ends tied up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know this is a bit overdue, but I honestly forgot that I had a second epilogue to update. I got caught up in my finals, and now finally, here it is! 
> 
> This is the end of an era guys! <3 
> 
> Thanks you for all the love and support. I love, love, I love you+NCT+JaeYong...and never wish to be parted from them from this moment on, until forever. 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy reading this, as much as I enjoyed writing this!
> 
> Have a good day you guys~~

 

 

 

**_ Epilogue II~  
The Finale...<3 _ **

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ten was drunk, that much was obvious to Johnny.

It wasn't just the smell of alcohol that gave it away. It was also the fact that the boy was currently dry humping against his thigh, in the corridor right outside their flat. And as much as Johnny wanted to grab a handful of that ass and have his way with this Thai, the tag **_ex_** kept flashing in his mind, and he held himself back.

Besides, he knew nothing good would come out of a one-night stand with an ex.

Especially with an ex he still had feelings for.

Johnny had no idea why they even broke up anymore.

Sure, Taeyong's long overdue confession that one frenzied night so many days ago might've been a precipitating factor, but he was very aware that their relationship had been in shambles from before college started, he still was confused.

_Just why did we break up again?_

Tae had obviously moved on, getting the closure that he needed. And while, at that time, he had been very angry at Ten for his behaviour...hell he is still angry about it, he obviously realised that it was a silly reason to break up for. Johnny loved a lot of things about Ten, but one thing he really did not agree to was how he had treated Taeyong.

Taeyong had been his first friend in high school. He was a new student, fresh from America, totally ignorant about systems in Korea, and Taeyong had literally held his hand through it all. He fell for Ten's wild personality, but he had always had a sweet spot of his first friend in his heart. He knew he made it obvious, and that might've somehow unconsciously made Ten act mean, but in all honesty, Johnny knew Ten was a bitch as well.

He knew what Taeyong felt, and he ignored it.

Johnny felt guilty too, that he himself hadn't realised it sooner. He had played along with Ten when the boy had asked Johnny not to mention anything to their best friend because he wanted to be the one to tell him. And he thought Taeyong just knew because the other never batted an eyelash when he made some actions.

But the past is in the past.

Presently he had a huge problem in his pants and in his arms.

"Let's go inside Ten."

“Will you fuck me then?”

“No…”

Suddenly Ten pushed him away. There was frown on his face, and he looked like he was about to cry.

“But I’m so horny for your cock.” He slurred. He started twisting his body shyly as he said the word ‘cock’ as if more colourful words hadn’t left that mouth before. Johnny stared at him blankly though, not knowing what to do.

His body gave him the green signal, but his brain was on full on emergency evacuation mode.

“Uh—Ten…it’s kind of…”

“I’ll just call Sehun-“

The words had barely left his mouth and Ten was hoisted in the air, thrown onto to Johnny’s bed and within an hour, he was snuggled into the taller’s chest. Both boys slept with a satisfied smile on their faces.

No doubt, Ten didn’t regret those acting lessons Sehun gave him at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yuta looked wistfully at Hansol's apartment door. And with each second he was getting irritated. He didn’t even know the reason he got thrown out of Hansol’s house in the first place.

Ok, maybe he did. Meddling with exes again was never a good thing, but Yuta really wanted Hansol back.

He’d never admit it out loud, but he really missed the doe eyes boy.

H regretted not cherishing him when he had him.

And so, when he heard he was in the same college as Taeyong, he started applying for every programme under the sun which would let him meet the boy. Of course, the indifference he portrayed had been nothing but a lie.  He lied because he was confused and scared. He had never had anything serious in his life, and now he actually pictured himself with Hansol, holding hands, walking on the beach, and kissing under the moonlight.

He wanted it so bad.

He figured it was lust, but obviously it wasn’t, because right now, it had been a whole 8 hours since he got kicked out, but he was still wide awake, still at the exact same spot as last night, staring at the door.

The door eventually flew open, and Hansol walked out, humming to himself. He looked tired, and his puffy eyes told Yuta that the boy had cried the whole night.

“I came to Korea because I missed you.”

Hansol jumped at his voice. And in any other occasion, Yuta would’ve up and snatched the opportunity to tease the man’s nerves. He was so cute when he looked at him all wide-eyed and surprised.

“Yu-Yuta?”

“I never really told you how beautiful you are in the morning when we used to go running by the river. Neither did I tell you that you shy, confused smiles make me feel so giddy. I literally always want to take you into my arms and just always stay that way.”

“Yuta…”

“I love you, so, so much!! I was stupid to deny my feelings…and I don’t even know how you feel about me. I have always been that stupid kid from class who you found annoying…hell, I don’t even know why you ever agreed to be my friend. But you did, and I fell in love, but I didn’t recognise it. Because I am dumb and stupid. It took me a whole month after you left Japan to realise that the pain in my chest wasn’t because of stupid lung disease…it was because my heart was broken…because you left without even saying goodbye.”

“You kn- I couldn’t say it…You should know…” Hansol choked, his eyes swimming with tears, and Yuta took a step forward, his arms raised, ready to comfort the man. But he paused, remembering that Hansol had asked him not to touch him again.

“What should I know…?”

“Wh—why I couldn’t say goodbye…I would’ve never left. If I had seen you one more time…I would’ve never left!!!” Hansol tears finally fell and Yuta stopped holding back and gathered the boy in his arms. His heart stopped for a second, at the other’s lack of reaction, but he breathed an internal sigh of relief a second later, when Hansol’s arms circled around his waist and hugged him back.

“Does that mean…”

“Yes…I love you too idiot…I always have…”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taeil and Doyoung stood a little away from the hugging couple in the corridor, both of them smiling as if they were proud parents or something. They were, in a sense.

“Well that’s two down, one to go.” Taeil commented, taking Doyoung’s hands and walking away, giving the new couple some privacy.

“You know that Yuta just needs one second to mess it up right?” Doyoung pointed out, sighing. “Ten is an idiot and he really needs to talk it out with Jonny, not seduce him into sex. And Jaehyun and Taeyong are stupid. I have idea what to do with them.”

“Let’s watch what our little Taeyong has in mind for that poor clay headed Jay.” Taeil said, chuckling as he remembered the incident from a few hours ago.

“Why?”

“He had contacted Ten for help in the ‘sex’ department.” Doyoung started choke-laughing to the point his eyes stated tearing up.

“We should bug their apartment, I’m dying to see Jaehyun die. Ten is not going to go easy on him.”

“I think that the opposite effect is going to happen.…but yeah, ten is not going to go easy on Jaehyun, I would want to see hi’s reactions too.” Taeil smirked, Ten was certainly going to make sure he got his way in the end. Even if that way isn’t what Taeyong had in mind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“And this is supposed to make him want to…do things with me?” Taeyong asked, his eyes sceptically scanning the clothes he was currently wearing. Maybe he was starting to regret asking Ten’s help.

He was wearing an oversized yellow sweater with blank pattern, over a plain white shirt, whose ends were sticking out from the under the sweater. And a baggy blue jean. With thick rimmed glasses, his hair in a side part, and a red scarf to top it all off. And the winter boots, and gloves. There was almost no other part of his body un covered. How is anyone supposed to find this sexy?

“Yes! Trust me, boys love it when the person they love is al dressed up and cosy for winter.”

“But it’s not that cold winter yet!”

“Exactly…! This way, you are showing him that you know exactly how to take care of yourself when the climate is bad.”

“Oh….” Taeyong was still doubtful, but Ten sounded confident, and he did make some sense. Though Taeyong was already sweating in the attire, and he can’t imagine wearing it anytime soon. “Okay…we’ll take this.” It’s for Jaehyun, so he’ll have to suck it up.

Initially Taeyong had given up his desire to get things going with Jaehyun, since the boy was genuinely trying his hardest to avoid anything remotely arousing. In fact, Taeyong had noticed that Jaehyun would get all awkward and distant when he was wearing something too tight or too short. So, he got tired of it, he rather at least have cuddling sessions that nothing.

But then yesterday this lady walking up to him, all red-lipped, wearing a tight little dress and high heels. She grabbed every singles man’s attention, and they were gawking at her, she was gorgeous alright. And Taeyong, even as a man, felt intimidated when their eyes met. She had sized him up and scoffed. “ _So, you are the one?”_ her voice was laced with sarcasm as she introduced herself. Taeyong was too riled up to remember her name, but he remembers that she referred to herself as Jaehyun’s ex. It was infuriating and humiliating at the same time. Especially when she winked at him before she left, _“You’re lucky, he’s quite skilled in bed.”_

After that his interest in getting Jaehyun to at least make out with him properly reached a new high. His pride was on the line now.

So he that was how he ended up in the state he was in.

It had been barely two hours, but he was already sweating bucket loads, and his hair was sticking in to his forehead.

Well at least he had Jaehyun’s attention.

“Babe…you sure you okay?” the boy handed him some napkins, and even wiped away some sweat from his forehead. “You look sick…why don’t you go take some rest? I’ll be back home soon ok?” he pecked his cheeks and walked off to his next class. Usually he would whine and cling onto his arms and force him to walk to his class.

Taeyong sighed, looks like this didn’t work out at all.

 

 

 

 

 

“Food!”

“What?”

“You have heard the saying which goes ‘stomach is the way to a man’s heart’, right?”

“No?”

“Well, there is one like that…and I think it’s true…look at Johnny, he makes me food every day and we have sex everyday.”

“I am not interested in hearing about your sex life at all.”

“It was an example.”

“Which I did not appreciate…anyways…what are you implying?”

“I have this secret recipe that my grandma gave me. Cook something for Jaehyun using that, and you’ll have you man in your bed in no time.” Ten smiled.

“Your grandma doesn’t know how to cook Korean dishes…you know Jaehyun prefers Korean food over anything else.”

“I know…it’s just an ingredient you dimwit…wait I’ll go get it.” He ran into the kitchen, Taeyong squirmed in his seat as he heard some noises from the kitchen. But he was far too excited to get suspicious. Ten came back, almost breathless, with a small container in his hand and gave it to him.

“It’s salt Ten.” He deadpanned. “We have that too.”

“No idiot…this isn’t salt…even though it looks and smells and tastes like salt. This is a family secret, it’s called Naclchittaphon. Add it to anything…as a garnish…and Jaehyun will be down in no time.”

Taeyong innocently nodded.

Needless to say, Taeyong ended up apologizing to Jaehyun and handing him glasses of water as the younger spit out the food and started coughing ridiculously. And then had to rush to the toilet, from which he didn’t get out for the whole day. Taeyong had to go back and forth, rushing to keep the boy hydrated and feed him porridge. 

In a very twisted way, he did end on Jaehyun's bed. only he was taking care of the poor sick basketball player and now doing...ahem ahem...things.

(You guys can guess what else Ten had put inside that container, other than the salt.)

 

 

 

 

 

“Read him something.” Ten said, giving him a thumbs-up. “Something like a classical romance, something that will stir up his lions and loins awake." Ten chuckled at his own joke, while Taeyong stared at him blankly, once again questioning his decision for asking Ten's help. "Here…these are the books I read to Johnny to get his libido up and running.”

And with that instruction in mind, Taeyong walked into the library, picking out the one book Ten had recommended, though he didn’t understand how Pride and Prejudice was supposed to stir Jaehyun’s anything up, he still went on with the plan.

 

_Just read to him your favorite part. The book is so good, any part just does the trick._

 

So that evening, Taeyong talked Jaehyun into sit next to him as he read out his favorite part from the book. Somewhere along the way, Jaehyun leaned down, and placed his head on Taeong’s lap. Humming along, encouraging him to continue reading.

 

_“…my affections and wishes have not changed, but one word from you shall silence me forever. If, however, your feelings have changed, I would have to tell you that you have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, love, l love you. And I never wish to be parted from you from this moment on…”_

 

Taeyong smiled, a single tear sliding down his cheeks as he read his favorite part. This book always got to him. How independent Jane was, and how Darcy had fallen for her unconventional charms; how through a series of misunderstandings and misplaces trusts, they eventually found each other. It was a timeless classic alright. He had watched every movie; every version. And he had wept at this part every single time.

Just as he put the book away, to catch Jaehyun’s expression, he was shocked.

Jaehyun was fast asleep on his lap. It looked like the boy had dozed off ages ago. Taeyong felt a little embarrassed, since he had also meant to confess own feelings to Jaehyun through the book, but the boy hadn’t heard a single word.

But he couldn’t even bring himself to be angry or annoyed. He gently pushed a few strands of hair away from Jaehyun’s face, and bent lower to press a light kiss on his cheeks, he didn’t want to wake the boy at all. He look so peaceful, and it had been a while since Taeyong had seen Jaehyun’s sleeping face.

Ten's expert advise may not have 'stirred Jaehyun's loins' but it certainly stirred Taeyong's heart. The said organ was beating faster, and there weere butterflies inside his stomach as he wtached Jaehyun sleep on his lap. It was like a scene from the movies, and even though Taeyong didn't get what he was aiming for, he was thankful for the experience.

So he sat there, on the sofa, rigidly; not moving an inch in fear that he’d wake his slumbering boyfriend. Eventually, his hands stopped caressing his hair, and he too leaned his head back against the sofa and fell asleep.

 

 

 

 

 

"Are you sure about this?” Taeyong was really broken about this one too. But he trusted Ten, and Ten also had more experience in the matter. Judging from how he and Johnny were on the road to patching things up.

“Yes. The cold shoulder always works. It’s tactic number two. Guys get a kick out of their partner being all aloof and angry. It fuels the passion.”

“Really?”

“Johnny and I have the bestest sex after our fights.”

“Oh…”

“Yup!” Ten smiled reassuringly, though in his mind, he was jumping up and down and giving himself high5s. He was smart indeed.

“But you and Johnny already have sex…”

“So?”

“…nothing…” The internal Ten stopped prancing around and instead flipped Taeyong off, this boy was getting smarter.

Though at the end of the day he regretted giving this advice, especially since he ended up trying to console a weeping Taeyong.

Taeyong had done exactly like Ten had instructed him. He hadn’t even bothered greeting Jaehyun when the latter came back from his basketball match, which itself was unusual since Taeyong never missed Jaehyun’s matches since they started dating. He moved away when the boy tried to hug him and dodged Jaehyun’s kiss. It baffled the young man, but he just thought Taeyong was sick and went to get a shower. But Taeyong kept up his act even as they ate dinner, he barely responded to Jaehyun’s words, and didn’t contribute at all. He only focused on eating.

“Baby?”

No response.

“Taeyong? What’s wrong baby?”

“Nothing.”

“There is obviously something. You haven’t spoken a word since I came home.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“For God’s sake Taeyong!! Not again! I thought we were past that stage already!! I’m too tired for this!”

It finally pissed off Jaehyun off and he just stormed off the room and banged the door to his room, not venturing out for the next few hours.

And Taeyong, not knowing what had gone wrong, ended up going to Ten and weeping his ass off.

“I’m not good enough for Jaehyun.”

Ten might’ve felt a tad bit bad, but not bad enough to actually help his baby lose his virginity.

Nah-uh. No one is defiling his baby on his watch.

 

 

 

 

 

Safe to say, Taeyong was sure this was going to fail. Even as the word left Ten’s mouth, he knew this would end up in their doom.

“Ten…if Jaehyun finds me flirting with even just a tree at this moment, he’ll skin me alive and it’s all over. You know how possessive he gets when he is angry.”

“Yes…I know. And today we are going to use that very same possessiveness effectively.” Ten smirked.  “Okay, since that is settled, meet Lucas. He is from YG university from the other side of the universe, so he knows nobody here, and nobody here knows him. Which makes him the perfect person.”

“Hey.” The Lucas guy smiled at Taeyong, and Taeyong couldn’t help but return that shy smile. “I’m Lucas.”

“I’m Taeyong.”

He was fidgeting in his seat, even as Ten had been explaining the plan, and now, as he walked the campus with his arms looped around Lucas’ he was still fidgeting.

He was dead scared of Jaehyun’s reaction. So, even though it was Ten’s plan, half way through the plan he ditched it.

He can’t risk hurting Jaehyun’s pride, especially not when he was still pissed about that earlier situation, just so that he can have his way.

He needs Jaehyun to do something, then he should just ask Jaehyun straight to the face, right? That seemed like a legit plan. And as Hansol had mentioned earlier, it could be that Jaehyun is holding back because he fears Taeyong getting hurt?

He thinks that somehow Hansol is right. Jaehyun is someone who would place his needs first.

So, he takes a deep breath and marches to the courts, knowing that that was exactly where he would find his boyfriend at this hour. He had a huge ass grin on his face, and he was sure he shocked a few people by actually greeting them on the way. But Taeyong was feeling great about himself at the moment and he was sure he was going to get Jaehyun tonight.

Boy was he wrong.

As soon as he enters the courts, the first person he noticed is his boyfriend. He frowned. Jaehyun was sitting on the bleachers, and wasn’t with the rest of the team. The game seemed to be over already and he usually would hurry into the showers and run back home. Not today apparently.

Just as he was about to call out to him, Jaehyun moved back a bit, tilting his head in laughter, unhinged and raw, something he hadn’t seen a while either. And then his breathe was knocked away when he noticed that he wasn’t alone. Right next to Jaehyun, sat the high heeled woman from that day, the one who started the whole deal in the first place. And this woman was dangerously close to Jaehyun, one more inch closer and she might as well just sit on his lap.

He glared at the oblivious duo.

His eye stung, but he refused to cry.

He took a deep breath and walked towards the fence, pretending he hadn’t seen Jaehyun just seconds ago.

“Johnny!”

His sharp ears caught the pause in the conversation coming from the bleachers, he smiled. Johnny ran up to him, his eyes darting towards Jaehyun and back to Taeyong.

“What up?”

“Where Jaehyun?” Johnny was about to point towards the bleachers. “On second thoughts…just tell him to come home asap. We need to talk.”

To say Johnny was surprised wouldn’t be far from the truth. Taeyong bumped into Ten on his way out, and barely even acknowledged him, and the Thai exchanged glances with Johnny before settling them on Jaehyun’s.

“I don’t know what happened boy, but you better brace yourself. Taeyong looked really serious back there.” Johnny said looking at Jaehyun. Ten stared at the woman beside him. By stared he means glared.

“You!”

“Have we met?” she replied haughtily, her hand settled on Jaehyun’s arms. “Let’s go get some dinner Jae.”

Safe to say, a very wild Ten had to be forcefully separated from the woman before he killed her. Also in his rage, he warned Jaehyun if he wasn’t with Taeyong in five minutes, he would cut his dick off.

Jaehyun ran back home like his life depended on it.

 

 

 

 

 

“You don’t love me anymore.”

“That is not true!”

“You think I’m boring…”

“No! Tae baby…I love you! Please open the door. Let me explain.”

Taeyong finally opened the door, and launched himself into Jaehyun’s chest.

“I thought…I thought you got back together with her…”

“Who? Why…why would you think that?”

Jaehyun swiftly carried Taeyong to the bed, and sat him on his lap, wiping away his tears.

“She…she met me…and told me about you guys…and I wasn’t…I’m not good enough…” Taeyong started sobbing again, and Jaehyun pulled his head to his shoulder, drawing circles on his back and making a mental note to tell Taeyong, when the boy was calmer, that he was the only person Jaehyun had ever been with, as a proper relationship.

“Of course, you are more than enough. You are too much…Taeyong you know I love you right?”

“You do…?” the boy lifted his head off of Jaehyun’s shoulders. His eyes were red and puffy and his whole face was a shade of pink. He felt bad as he wiped some tears off of his face.

“Yes! With all my heart.”

“Then why won’t you have sex with me?”

Jaehyun stared stupefied at the question. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, not sure how he wanted to answer that question. Never before had he ever thought that Taeyong would even ask him about sex. And if he was being really honest, he would agree that the knowledge that Taeyong had been thinking about kind of pleased Jaehyun a little too much. But it made him just as nervous too.

“Because…”

“Because I’m not sexy enough? Am I not a good kisser? Do I not turn you on? Or is it that you can’t get it up? Or is it because...”

Yet again Jaehyun looked on dumbly. Taeyong kept firing questions at him, and his brain started to malfunction as Taeyong’s questions got wilder and wilder by the second. Jaehyun leaned forward and captured Taeyong’s lips, using the fact that he had caught Taeyong mid speech to his advantage and shoved his tongue inside. Effectively shutting him up.

The couple fell onto the bed, with Taeyong on top, clutching onto each other as the kiss got steamier. They moaned, and held on to each other tighter, and closer. Ten was right, things did get steamier after a fight. Jaehyun pulled away first. He pushed his hips against Taeyong's, to which the boy replied with a moan. He immediately got embarrassed at the sound he made and hid his face.

“Do you feel that?” he asked pointedly. Taeyong had buried his face on the crook of his neck, but didn’t reply. So he squeezed the other’s hips and does it again. “Do you feel that baby?”

Taeyong nodded this time, Jaehyun could guess he was infinitely embarrassed, and chuckled. Almost.

“Does that answer one of your questions? I can get it up, and for your information, I’m always turned on by the littlest thing you do. Even just you stretching your neck to look at something behind gets me turned on.”

A muffled whine and a 'shut up' reaches his ears and he grined. He adjusted them a bit and pulled the body closer to him, chuckling at his reactions.

_So cute._

“You are sexy, so much, that you don’t even know it. You are a really good kisser, at least I think so…for me your lips are the most perfect thing that could happen to my lips.”

Jaehyun almost jumped up in shock when he felt a gentle bite against his skin in retaliation. Damn if the boy just knew how hard he was trying not to flip them over, strip the boy, and have his way with him. He managed to mask his arousal with a chuckle.

“You are-“

“Then why won’t you have sex with me?” Taeyong suddenly got up and faced him. He was red, like, tomato red. His flushed skin extended beyond his neck and under his clothes and made him wonder if Taeyong’s whole body would look the same when they had sex. Of course, he added that thought to the file and stored it away in the back of his mind. He’d ponder on it later.

“You aren’t ready for it baby…and what’s with the sudden interest in sex?”

“Well for one…I’m ready! Two, have you looked at yourself? And three, your ex flings keep telling me how good you are in bed, and I’m lucky to have you…but here we are, six months into out relationship, and I haven’t even seen you naked…or touched it…” even as the words left his mouth, Taeyong got embarassed, and he went back into hiding. Jaehyun had to bite his lips to control his laughter.

“Do you want to see or touch _it_?”

“NO! I mean yes…” Taeyong squirmed against this body, clearly regretting starting this talk, but he was too deep in now to stop. Because this time Jaehyun didn’t just let it go. He took Taeyong’s hand and guided it down, and let him ‘feel’ his erection. He felt Taeyong’s hand twitching before moving a bit. He  hummed as Taeyong pressed a bit harder, and moved his hands up and down the length experimentally, and cautiously. He pressed a kiss on his boyfriend's ears as the boy suddenly stopped his actions at Jaehyun's moan. He was really turned on, Taeyong touching him like this was dream come true, but never even in his wildest fantasies, did he imagine  this situation. He needed a cold shower asap.

“See you aren’t ready…”

“But I want to…I want more…but you always back out.” Taeyong pulled his hand away and kept it on his chest.

“I know…I’m sorry. It’s just that I want more too…and I’m scared that if I take more…I’ll not stop. And I really don’t want to hurt you, or scare you.”

“I know you won’t hurt me. Or scare me away.”

“Oh?”

“I trust you.”

Jaehyun chuckled again, he kissed Taeyong’s forehead, eyes, cheeks, nose, and finally his lips. The two stayed tangled up in bed, tasting each other at their own pace.

“I’ll try to stop holding back…But lets take things slow ok baby?”

“Hmmm. Okay”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 years later...

 

 

The group was spilled all over Jaehyun and Taeyong’s flat. Each were in their own world, and frankly as Taeyong looked at all of them, he felt like a proud and happy parent. All his friends were happy, and Jaehyun was happy, and that made him happy.

Hansol and Yuta were in the corner, playing with their fingers and giggling at random things; Ten was on Johnny’s lap, and the two were busy lecturing Mark and Donghyuck about some things that Taeyong knew he’d never have the guts to talk about. Jaehyun was in the kitchen, along with Doyoung, platting the food, and Taeil helped him set the table.

They had managed to stick together after they graduated, they kept in contact even as they went their separate ways. Hansol and Yuta moved back to Japan, and Ten was making final arrangements to move in with Johnny in his apartment in Chicago.

They turned out fine too.

Jaehyun too was planning to shift to the US, though he hadn’t discussed it with Taeyong yet, but the other had heard him talking to his parents one afternoon, and even though he was upset about it, he knew Jaehyun wouldn’t do anything to hurt him.

There isn’t a single day in their life when Jaehyun hadn’t come home, picked him up bridal style and twirled him around and decared his love for him. It was as if seeing him made him the happiest. Being a college professor took a real toll on Taeyong, so his highlight of the day is literally Jaehyun coming back home. Though he'd never tell, he actually looked forward to the weekeds because on those day Jaehyun would wake him with kisses and make love to him and he was sure he lived in heaven.

“Guys the food’s ready!” Doyoung shouted, getting the boys’ attention, and as if struck by lightning, the boys rushed to the table and seated themselves, still chattering and laughing and in Johnny’s case lecturing.

Later that night, after Jaehyun and Taeyong cleaned up, they both collapsed on onto their couch and sighed.

“Who would’ve thought that things would end up this way when you vomited on my shoe that day.”

“Not that again Jae!” Taeyong whined, nudging the tall idiot away.

“I’m going to mention that again and again. I’m going to tell everyone I meet bout how my husband’s first reaction to me was vomiting. I’m going tell our kids, and grandkids…and even great grand kids if I get the chance. It could be our family legacy or something.”

“Shut up…wait…did you just say…husband?”

“Yup.”

“I didn’t realise we were married…is this the point where you are going to say I have dissociative amnesia and then subject me to one of crazy treatment methods? Nah-uh mister…I refuse to be your lab rat.” Taeyong stuck his tongue out. Though inside he was giddy about the concept. He could imagine exactly was Jaehyun was picturing in his mind.

“Of course, not my dear. I’m don’t have to use underhanded methods for that. You’re already my crazy lil baby.” He chuckled as Taeyong glared at him. ”…though I’m kind of proud that you listen to what I say. I’m just saying that you’d be my husband after marrying me.”

Taeyong threw him a dirty look.

“I don’t remember being asked either.”

“You don’t? let’s fix that then…”

Jaehyun got down on one knee, and took Taeyong’s hand in his.

“Lee Taeyong, my most dearest, and amazing boyfriend. I have been thinking about marrying you since our first year together. And I know you are probably thinking of the million reasons why this won’t work…mainly since we are in Korea. So that is why I was pulling some strings, and asking around if America has space for a mediocre psychologist and a wonderful literature professor. They do, and so, finally I can ask you this question without any doubts.”

“Will you do it already!!” Taeyong grinned, he rolled his eyes when Jaehyun dramatically cleared his throat.

“Taeyong, will you do me the great honor of being my husband? I am willing to sacrifice all my shoes for you to vomit on.” Jaehyun grinned.

“Yes! I’ll gladly soil all your new shoes.”

And they sealed it with a kiss, and maybe something a bit steamier.

 

_“I love you”_

_“I love you too.”_

 

 

 

 

Who would’ve ever thought that, years ago when Ten first predicted that Taeyong would thank him for the manipulated room change, he’d be right? Taeyong was extremely thankful for his stupid Thai friend, and Johnny and everyone in the whole wide universe who brought him to Jaehyun. So by that equation, he’s immensely thankful to the author too, since it is her eccentric imagination and wonderful writing skills that made this whole fairy-tale ending possible. And also the readers, for sticking around till the end and loving his and Jaehyun's journey together.

 

 

 

 

_**The end.** _

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so so so much!! <3


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